Eärlindë
by Ebony L. Heart
Summary: Known by her scarlet red eyes and her lycanthrope, Valaina is an outcast from the elves save but a few. Gandalf calls her to accompany him along with a group of dwarves and a hobbit along an adventure. She must gain the trust of the dwarves and prove that she is not dark as many say she is. Sequel to Scarlet Eyes.
1. Chapter 1: Meeting Bilbo

Chapter 1: Meeting Bilbo

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**EDIT: Forgot to say, Isil is pronounced Ee-sill, and is the elvish name for Midnight. Just thought I'd mention that.**

**A/N: Hello, and thank you for stopping by. This is a _prequel _to my other fan fiction work, _Scarlet Eyes_. If you enjoyed _Scarlet Eyes_, then you may just enjoy this story as well. Seeing as _The Hobbit_ will be a trilogy, this book will go slower than _Scarlet Eyes _went, but I promise a chapter every week, maybe an extra one here and there. I decided to continue, or go back, to Valaina's earlier journey with Bilbo, Gandalf, and a group of dwarves. In _Scarlet Eyes_, Valaina hinted, and said at one point, that she went on the journey to Erabor. And so, here I am, doing another fan fiction with Valaina. For those of you who read _Scarlet Eyes_, thank you for joining me with another part of Valaina's adventures. If you are joining me for the first time, I recommend reading _Scarlet Eyes. _So, without further delay, let us begin on Valaina's next journey! This time around, I do not think i will have any romance. She is, after all, an elf. I will, however, have a relationship stance that is much like a brother-sister relationship as we go on. But, by no means, is this story going to be an OC/Cannon Character. Sorry about that. If you wish to read a slight OC/Legolas fan fiction, than _Scarlet Eyes _may be the book you would like to read (though the book isn't centered around romance as it is around the story line, adventure, and hopeless humor). Reviews are always loved, favs and follows are also greatly appreciated. (But please, no "U sux! Stop deh writing!" -_- That is not nice. _Nice_reviews are wanted if you are to do one. Even criticism is also appreciated as long as it is not the above ^^^).**

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The sweet sound of singing birds filled her ears as she walked down a brightly lit path in a very green forest. The crisp, morning air touched her fair features, beckoning to her to stop and enjoy the happy forest. Her mid-back, straight blonde hair fluttered slightly in the wind, her worn, brown elven boots making no noise, nor showing any sign of the two daggers stored in each boot, as she walked along the path, a large mare of fine breeding trailing next to her. The mare's bright blue eyes were a contrast to the midnight black coat she sported, not a single white on her. The mare's shoulder reached up to sixteen and three hands high, a tall mare to say the most. She was as calm as her rider, and had a temper to match. She gave a snort as a squirrel darted out in the path and back into its tree.

The woman, no more than twenty at the least, adjusted the dark brown leather vest over her form fitting tan, long sleeved shirt. On her belt around her waist she had a long knife stored and a set of throwing knives, ten in total. She wore brown, feminine breeches to match the rest of her outfit. Two daggers were strapped to each of her thighs, and dual elven short swords rested on her back with three daggers sitting in between the sword sheaths instead of a quiver. She had left her bow behind in the safety of Rivendell. The journey her old friend had asked her to partake in would not be kind to an archer, and would require a great deal of swordsmanship.

The woman saw the green rolling hills and round doors to the hobbit holes of the Shire. She then noticed, upon closer inspection, the early risers that had begun their work or were enjoying the beautiful morning, her scarlet red eyes roaming over one of the few known hobbit countries. That's when she spotted her old friend who just so happened to find it amusing to block her path into the Shire. "What is a red-eyed elleth, like yourself, doing in these parts with a horse as black as night and eyes as bright as the morning?" the gray clad old man asked as he leaned on his brown staff.

"What is an old man with grey curly hair and a gnarled old walking branch doing standing in the middle of such a person's path? It is not very courteous in the least," the woman answered.

Gandalf smiled and gave a slight laugh as he moved forward toward the elleth. "It is good to see you, Eärlindë. I praise the Valar that you have come," Gandalf said as he moved away from Valaina, as was her real name so to say. "And you have left your cloth behind."

"I only did so because you asked me to more or less kindly," Valaina huffed.

"If you are to accompany us on this journey then you must not let your companions find any reason to mistrust you," Gandalf said in assurance.

Valaina gave an un-elf like snort that sounded much like a dog's. "Gandalf," she started in a monotone voice, "my eyes are enough for _most _to mistrust me. Hell, the Shire folk will run at the sight of me."

"No, my dear Eärlindë, they will not. They will stare, however."

"Staring is better than screaming and running," the elleth muttered.

"Come, I would like you to greet the fourteenth member of the company with me," Gandalf said as he turned and started toward the Shire. "Has Isil been good to you of late?"

Isil, the black mare, gave an offended snort. "She has," Valaina said as she stroked the mare's forehead. "She has indeed."

They began to walk along the dirt road of the Shire, heading to the topmost hobbit hole where, with Valaina's eyes, she could see a single hobbit with brown hair, white shirt, yellow vest and brown trousers sitting outside his house on a bench smoking his pipe and enjoying the morning. "Who is that?" Valaina asked Gandalf as they began to ascended the hills once more.

"That, mellon nim, is Bilbo Baggins," Gandalf said in his light hearted tone. "And he is the fourteenth member of the company. The dwarves will be arriving at nightfall to his house."

"How did you manage to persuade a bunch of dwarves to all congregate at one hobbit hole?"

"I mentioned supper, of course," Gandalf said as if it were obvious.

"I should have known. The dwarves will not take me lightly, you know. I am an elf after all."

"Oh, but my dear, they will," Gandalf said gravely. "I have told them about you-"

"Yet you did not tell them that I would be joining on my own accord so not to be accounted for in this adventure."

"Yes, Eärlindë, you are right," Gandalf said as they began to slow.

Isil stood quietly with her rider as they stood next to Gandalf. They had reached the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. His eyes were shut and a hearty grin sat upon his face as he held his pipe, a smoke ring slowly floating away from him. Immediately, the smoke ring took form of a butterfly and flew right into the poor hobbit's nose. He gasped, his face wrinkling in distaste before he opened his eyes and half glared, half frowned at Gandalf. Bilbo looked around, a frowning question upon his face. He shifted uncomfortably as Gandalf stood leaning on his staff looking down at the hobbit, the white fence the only barrier between the two. "Good morning," Bilbo said awkwardly, and it was painted on his face that he did not want to be talking to this mere stranger.

Of course, Gandalf being, well, Gandalf, had to make the poor hobbit's morning slightly more confusing, and by slightly, a lot. "What do you mean?" Gandalf asked incredulously. "Do you mean to wish me a good morning or that it is a good morning whether I want it or not? Or perhaps you mean to say you feel good on this particular morning? Or are you stating that this is a morning to be good on? Hm?"

Bilbo sat with his mouth half open in slightly confusion. "All of them at once, I suppose," he said while moving his hand holding his pipe in a smile circle.

"Gandalf, must you confuse him like that?" Valaina asked as she leaned back against Isil and inspected a dagger.

Gandalf's grin faded into a frown, and Valaina thought she was about to be reprimanded when Isil gave her a slight push. "Can I help you?" Bilbo said after trying to contemplate on whether or not to continue to talk to the weird old man.

"That remains to be seen," Gandalf said.

"And, what about you?" Bilbo asked turning to Valaina though he was more cautious about the elleth.

Valaina raised her eyes to meet Bilbo's and the poor hobbit paled in fright. "You aren't, in a matter of speaking, going to be," he cleared his throat as his eyes shifted from the horse to the elleth to the Shire and back, "will, will you, um, hurt me with those or are you just, so to say, inspecting them for later travels?"

Valaina sheathed her dagger. "No, Master Bilbo Baggins, I will not be hurting you. But I was inspecting them for later travels as I always do when I find a topic of little interest bothering me," Valaina said as she slowly turned to Gandalf trying to convey her point to move on.

"Hm…" Gandalf started again, "I am looking for someone to share in an adventure."

The look on Bilbo's face made Valaina smile. The little hobbit sure had a way of expressing himself through his facial expressions and his actions. The incredulous and perplexed look on Bilbo's face told Valaina right away that the hobbit was not seeking an adventure anytime soon. He started to say what, but stopped as his eyebrows scrunched up in thought and frown. "An…adventure?"

"Yes, and adventure," Valaina muttered to Isil. "Good goddess! I do not think this will be such a good conversation."

Bilbo looked down with a slight shake of his head before looking back at Gandalf. "No, I don't imagine anyone west of Bree," Bilbo gave a small smirk, his animated gestures making his statement livelier, "would have much interest in adventures."

Valaina rolled her eyes. "That would be a no," she spoke to Isil.

He stood up with a please look on his face and made his way over to his mail box. "Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things," Bilbo said as he opened his mail box and pulled the mail out. "Make you late for dinner. Heh, heh…"

He sifted through the mail with his pipe in his mouth. "Hmm…huh…hmm…" he muttered as he shifted his eyes from his mail. He held the end of his pipe with one hand and nervously let the smoke out before taking the pipe out once more. "Good morning…"

"You already said that," Valaina said from beside the horse.

"Perhaps…"

Bilbo turned and began to ascend the steps to his house. "You think I have lived to be 'good morninged', by Belladonna Took's son as if I were selling buttons at the door," Gandalf said in slight agitation making Bilbo stop on his steps.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You've yet to beg," Valaina said as she fondled with Isil's bridle, Gandalf giving her a stern glare. "What? He said it. I am merely pointing out that he has not yet done the begging."

"You, Eärlindë, make no sense sometimes."

"You don't make sense the majority of the time," Valaina retorted as Bilbo looked from one to another with a frown.

Gandalf shook his head and sighed before returning to Bilbo. "You've changed, and not entirely for the better, Bilbo Baggins."

Bilbo's frown deepened. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" he asked.

"You should," Valaina responded.

"I definitely don't know you," the hobbit retorted.

"Of course you don't. Not many know me, and those who do, or did, know not to spread my name."

Bilbo cleared his throat. "Hmm…di…did?"

"'Did' as in dead."

"Stop scaring the poor hobbit, Eärlindë," Gandalf shook his head. "Well, you know my name, although you don't remember that I belong to it. I'm Gandalf! And Gandalf means…me!"

"Good save," Valaina gave a nod.

"Shut up, Eärlindë. You are not helping."

"Gandalf? Not Gandalf the wandering wizard who made such excellent fireworks!" Bilbo said as he pointed to Gandalf with the end of his pipe, and Gandalf looked pleased, a bright smile on his face. "Old Took used to have them on Midsummer's Eve. Heh, heh. Ahem," he cleared his throat and his frowning, unwelcoming face was put back on. "No idea he was still in business."

Gandalf's smile faded and he and gave the hobbit a glower. "And where else should I be?" Gandalf asked.

"Where else-? Ahem."

Valaina couldn't help it, and she let out a chuckle. "Oh, Gandalf you are one intimidating person," she said.

"Well, I'm pleased you remember something about me even if it is only my fireworks," Gandalf said in disappointment as Bilbo puffed on his pipe nervously. "Yes, well, that's decided. It will be very good, and most amusing for me. I shall inform the others."

"It shall be amusing for us all, Gandalf," Valaina said as the wizard began to prepare to leave.

"Inform the who? What? No. No. No-Wait," Bilbo said in slight fright as he hustled up the rest of the way up the stairs shaking his head animatedly. "We do not want any adventures here, thank you. Not today. Not-" he cleared his throat. "I suggest you try Over the Hill, or Across the Water," he said making a shooing motion with his pipe. "Good morning," he said awkwardly as he rushed inside his house and locked the door.

"Great," Valaina said in excitement. "This will be _most _amusing, this journey."

"Yes, so it seems."

Gandalf walked up to the door and with the end of his staff made an 'F', the two lines making the 'F' slanted into a dwarf symbol. He peered into the window before making his way back to Valaina. "When you say the 'others'," Valaina piped up, "you mean the dwarves, correct?"

"Yes, Eärlindë, I do. If you wish to meet them now, then join me. If you do not, then stay here and try to persuade Bilbo to let you stay the night in his home as to await our arrival."

"Take Isil with you," Valaina said. "You will travel faster."

"Oh, I intend to go slow and be back for suppertime," Gandalf said with a mischievous smile.

"You…oh you're good," Valaina said understanding his madness behind inviting dwarves to supper.

"They will also take to you more kindly if you are joining them for supper, although the leader of the company will take a longer time to warm up to you than most others."

"I shall see you in the evening then, with the rest of your…company," Valaina said with a bow.

"I do hope you will not lose your temper with them."

"I am perfectly capable of containing my…hmm…temper."

"That does not sound too convincing."

"Shouldn't you be on your way?" Valaina asked a little peeved.

"Lycan…"

"Wizard," Valaina muttered with a smirk as Gandalf turned and began to walk back the way they came, shaking his head as he did so.

Valaina took a deep breath and waited ten minutes before moving to knock on Bilbo's door, Isil taking to falling asleep in under a nearby tree. Bilbo answered the door, thinking it was another hobbit. "Between visitors and strangers, I-" he started with a smile before frowning. "Oh, it is you. Who are you anyway?"

"That's a nice way to say hello. May I come in, Master Baggins?" Valaina asked as politely as she could manage.

Bilbo leaned back on his heels, arms crossed. "You didn't answer my question."

Valaina resisted the glare that was about to surface. "I am Valaina," she said with a bow of her head, "and I am a friend of Gandalf's. I only wish to talk for a while."

"Hmm…heh…nope, sorry."

Bilbo went to shut the door when Valaina's hand shot out and held the door open, the woman surprisingly strong. That was when Bilbo noticed all the weapon's she carried and the muscle she had even though she still looked very much feminine and pretty. "I am finding myself without a roof over my head for the time being, and I promise you that while I am here no harm will befall you," Valaina said with a straight face.

Bilbo stared at the swirling red eyes of the elleth and gave a feeble nod. "Well…I guess one night will not hurt," he mumbled.

Valaina gave a smile as she walked into the house as Bilbo shut the door behind her. She found the hobbit hole very home-like with rounded openings and doors, the ceiling close to her head. The wood of the house was sharp and new, the smells of wood, food, and fresh air mixed together. "You have a lovely home," she said as she took in the surroundings and the neatness of it all.

"Thank you," Bilbo said as he walked toward the kitchen. "Um, could I offer you some tea?"

"That would be lovely," Valaina said as she followed the hobbit, her stomach in a knot from having to act more elf-like than she was used to.

The two sat down at Bilbo's table, and the poor hobbit looked ready to bolt. "So, you know Gandalf?" he asked.

"Yes," Valaina replied. "That is quite obvious, is it not?"

"Are you a wizard, or a witch, as well?"

Valaina chuckled slightly. "No," she said as she pulled her hair away from her ears. "I am an elf, Master Baggins."

"An…an elf?" Bilbo said with his animated features. "I've never met of an elf before."

"Well, now you have," Valaina said as she sat back, leaving behind her elvish act. "And I am not what you would think an elf is like. In fact, I am far from any _normal _elf."

"What do you mean? If I may ask."

"For one," Valaina crossed her arms over her chest, "I do not belong to any specific elven place. I may as well tell you that I was kicked out of my home a near three hundred and forty years ago, when I was twenty. And I should also warn you now that most do not, well, take to me kindly so to speak."

"Well…that is…um…ahem…"

"Speechless," Valaina chuckled. "You, at least, have done well in my prescence for most fear me for my eyes."

"Red is not, um, normal?"

"No," Valaina said in a dangerous tone, "it is more toward the evil beings that Middle Earth fought a long time ago back in the days of Sauron and Morgoth. You have nothing to fear of me, though," Valaina reassured the poor hobbit as his eyes grew wide with fright, "for I am a friend of Gandalf, as I said earlier, and I am opposed to those of evil's grasp."

The tea kettle began to whistle and Bilbo attended the tea before pour two cups. "I do not know if you would be interested…hmm…this is very good by the way.," Valaina said after taking a sip of her tea, "never mind. Please, tell me about the Shire."


	2. Chapter 2: An Angry Lycan

Chapter 2: An Angry Lycan

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**EDIT: I mixed Fili and Kili up...again...*is idiot***

**A/N: I couldn't help it! Here, have another chapter tonight, and some angry, snarky Valaina (****_SE _****readers will know what I mean XD)**

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** Lady of Myth and Legends: **Haha, thanks! And yes, she does. You will see a lot more of that in the coming chapters. The dwarves will definintly not like it, except for maybe a few that I found quite lenient toward strangers. And the ensuing of chaos is always accepted and done when Valaina is around XD

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Bilbo had told Valaina of the Shire and its people, and he even went to tell her the history of some of his items in his house. Valaina, of course, being Valaina, had absolutely no interest in the Shire, or the Shire folk for that matter. They lacked in wanting adventure, they did not like strangers, they liked to keep to themselves, and above all else, they liked their quiet natures. It was a very, unappealing talk and Valaina had found herself nodding off several times, but had quickly caught herself before Bilbo noticed.

_At least he seems more at ease with me,_ she thought. Bilbo had become more at ease with the elleth as he talked. "What about you?" he asked. "You like adventure and the like as I know, but what about your home?"

"I don't have a home," Valaina said in slight anger. "Or, at least, I don't have a place to _call _home. I have a place in the halls of Lord Elrond of Rivendell, but that is because of his daughter, the Lady Arwen. She is one of my close friends, and had persuaded her father in giving me my own rooms in Rivendell. That is about as close to a home as I have got."

"I am sorry."

"I'm not," Valaina said as she looked out the window to the dying sunset. "Ever since I learned of what I truly am, I have enjoyed my life better than I would have ever thought. Sure, it was tough at the start, but that doesn't mean I have to dwell in the past all the time."

Bilbo was silent for some time before he too, noticed the sun setting. "It is high time I start supper. Oh…hmm…um…" he became awkward, and didn't know how to phrase his thoughts.

"I am not that hungry, thank you," Valaina spared the hobbit from any further tough thoughts. "I shall give Isil a quick ride before I come back. You will not mind, right?"

"No, go ahead."

Valaina smiled and left the house to find the black mare. She found Isil standing under the same tree Valaina had left her. The elleth gave a shrill whistle and the mare trotted up to her. Valaina mounted the horse in a swift, horsemanship manner and cantered out of the Shire for a gallop in the forest. After about an hour, the two returned to the tree. Valaina removed the saddle and bridle from the mare before brushing her down. Isil stretched out her neck and rear legs like a dog, enjoying the feeling of her back being scratched. Valaina gave the horse some water before leaving the mare to the tree, Isil finding the grass around her quite delicious.

Valaina made her way back into Bilbo's house, and caught scent of cooked fish, yet her own stomach didn't want to eat at the moment. Valaina sat in the hobbit's study, and cleaned her weapons even though they really didn't need it. As she fitted her last dagger into its sheath, the doorbell rang, a little tinkling sound like a bell. Bilbo with his robe tied over his shirt and trousers, walked over to the door, a frown on his face. He opened it and looked rather shocked. "Dwalin, at your service," a rumbling dwarf voice said.

Valaina's eyes snapped up, and she gave a small growl much like a dog. "Bilbo Baggins," Bilbo said awkwardly, "at yours."

The dwarf walked in, and Valaina caught sight of a thick, bushy dark brown beard cut in a style that made it look like four, thick bushy whiskers as well as half a head of hair, for the other half, the top half mind you, was completely bald. "Do we know each other?" Bilbo asked in confusion.

"No," Dwalin said as if it was a common fact that they didn't. He unhooked his cloak and looked around. "Which way, laddie? Is it down here?"

"What is where?"

"Supper," Dwalin said as he tossed Bilbo his cloak and continued toward the study. "He said there be food and lots of it."

"He-he said? Who said?" Bilbo asked confused.

Dwalin walked right past Valaina who was leaning against the wall of the study. "No greetings for me?" she asked in a less than pleasant tone.

Dwalin whipped around and searched for the voice. "Where are you? Show yourself," Dwalin said as he drew himself up.

Valaina moved out from behind the wall and stood with her arms crossed over her chest, feet apart, and shoulders squared as if she were about to jump into a fight. "Well, I am right here," she said.

"And who might you be, lass?"

"Valaina," she said with a bow of her head, "at your service…I think. That is how you dwarves greet strangers, isn't it?"

"Dwalin, at yours," Dwalin said a bow. "And yes, just about. What would you be by any chance? For you are not a dwarf nor are you a hobbit."

"The dreaded question," she grumbled. "I…well…I'm an elf."

Dwalin gave her a glare. "We do not deal with _your _kind."

"If you would sit I will explain-"

"I do not need any explanation from an _elf_."

Valaina growled as Bilbo shut his door, not sure what was happening. "I believe you do," she growled.

Dwalin gave her a glare, but nodded. "I guess. You are lucky that you have met me first, for I do not think the others will take so kindly to you."

"Lucky?" she growled, but took a deep breath and swallowed her anger. "Shall we sit?"

"After you, _elf_."

"My name is Valaina, thank you very much."

Valaina walked by Dwalin and resisted the urge to knock into the dwarf. She realized that she was a good few inches taller than the dwarf, but far less brawny. She sat down at the table, and Dwalin took up Bilbo's seat and began to eat the food. "So," he said around a mouth full of food, "explain."

"I, for one," Valaina said as her scarlet red eyes met Dwalin's brown and the dwarf stopped eating as the elleth's irises began to glow a red, "am the white lycan, if that changes your opinion on me at all."

Dwalin's glare dropped off and a frown replaced it. "It does, for an enemy of the elves is always a friend of mine, even if it is one of their own. Though, I still do not trust you as much, but perhaps you may be of use."

"May be of use?" Valaina snarled standing up quickly and sending her chair flying back as she slammed her hands down on the table. "What the hell do you take me for? Do you think I am some weak elleth?!"

She stopped growling and shook herself, the dwarf and the hobbit both looking at her in astonishment. She sat down once more. "Stupid mother…" she muttered trailing off into a deep, shaky breath. "Damn Rage…"

Dwalin looked at Valaina from under his bushy eyebrows before continuing his eating. Soon, he had finished the plate, and bit off the fish head. "Very good, this. Anymore?" he said after a while in a much happier mood.

"Hm? Oh, yes, yes. Ah," Bilbo said anxiously as he found his plate of biscuits.

He took one and shoved it into his robe pocket before setting it down near the dwarf. "Help yourself," he said, and Dwalin did. "It's just that I wasn't, um, expecting more company."

The doorbell rang again and Bilbo looked slightly frightened once more. "That'd be the door," Dwalin said around a mouthful of food before giving Valaina a half smirk.

"I can't sit any more…" Valaina growled as she rose.

Valaina made her way into the foyer, and caught sight of a rather small old dwarf with white hair and long beard. "Balin, at your service," he said with a flourished bow.

"Good evening," Bilbo said with a frown.

"Yes. Yes it is," Balin said with a smile before walking in and clapping Bilbo on the shoulder. "Though I think it might rain a bit later. Am I late?"

"Late for what?"

"Oh! Ha ha!"

Balin moved forward and spotted Dwalin as Bilbo shut the door. "How many dwarves are coming?" he asked Valaina under his breath.

"To be honest, Master Bilbo," she growled, "I have no idea."

"Are you going to introduce yourself as well?"

"Balin will see me in three…two…"

"Who is this pretty young lass?" Balin said with a smile.

"I'm Valaina, and I am the elf that Gandalf _should _have told you about," Valaina said with little patience.

Balin's smile faded, but then sprang back up as Dwalin placed a hefty hand on his shoulder. "She's the _lycan_," he said.

"I would say it is a pleasure to meet you, lass, but it is not quite that nice as you are still an elf," Balin said.

She gave an unelf-like snort as she leaned against the wall. The two dwarves made their way into the pantry and began to talk about the food inside while Bilbo was talking to them. _What did you expect from dwarves, Valaina? _she asked herself. _Seriously, did you think that they would accept you because you are a lycan? That you can turn into a wolf? Yeah, right. You should have seen that one coming, dumbass…_

The doorbell rang again, and Valaina gave a groan. "Are you fucking kidding me?" she said aloud. "How many of you bastards are there?"

"Enough to annoy one elleth, that's for sure," Balin said as Bilbo made is way to the door.

"Though, she has quite a mouth for an elf. When was the last time you ever heard one curse?"

Bilbo opened the door and Valaina turned to see who else was at the door. As Bilbo opened it, she caught sight of two more dwarves. One had blonde wavy hair with two braids on the side of his head, and a neatly trimmed beard to match, minus the two small braids on either side of his mouth. His blue eyes looked happy, as he looked down at the dwarf. The other had brown wavy hair, brown eyes, and a shadow instead of a beard. "Fili," the blonde said.

"Kili," Fili's brother said.

"At your service," both dwarves said as they gave a bow at the same time.

Valaina caught the growl in her throat die away as the two, young dwarves looked at Bilbo. They were handsome in an odd way for dwarves. She gave a snort. They may have both been handsome, but they were _dwarves_, and she gave a small growl. "You must be Mister Boggins," Kili said with a smile.

"Nope you can't come in, you've come to the wrong house!" Bilbo said quickly and tried to shut the door.

But Kili was quick and caught the door and pushed it back, sending Bilbo staggering a bit. "What? Has it been canceled?" Kili asked and Valaina had to admit that he looked like a lost puppy with the upset face he was pulling.

"No one told us," Fili piped in with an upset frown.

"Can-No nothing's been canceled!" Bilbo said in an angry tone.

Kili's face lit up in a huge smile. "Well that's a relief!" he said before barging past Bilbo with his brother right behind.

"Careful with these," Fili said as he removed his sword and a few daggers and placed them into Bilbo's arms, "I just had them sharpened."

"It's nice, this place," Kili said as he looked around. "Did you do it yourself?"

He began to scrap his boots off on a large wooden box. "It's been in the family for years. That's my mother's jewelry box! Could you please not do that?!" Bilbo yelled.

"Kili, Fili!" Dwalin said as he entered. "Could you give us a hand?"

"Mr. Dwalin," Kili said as the older dwarf lead him over to the kitchen.

"Right," Valaina growled. "Ignore the elf. As is expected."

Fili was the one that caught sight of her as he made his way toward the dining room. "And who might you be?" he asked in a charming manner.

"An elven lycan," she growled as she turned to face the dwarf. "Not that you would care, now would you?"

Fili's smile faded into a frown, and Kili walked over to him. "Come on, we need your help in-" he stopped short when he noticed Valaina. "I'm sorry, I did not see you here before! What is your name?"

Valaina turned her glare onto Kili, and his puppy smile grew brighter. "Valaina," she growled.

"Oh! You're the lycan Gandalf told us about!"

"Um…"

"Can you really shift from an elf to a wolf?"

"Yes…"

"Will you show us later?"

"Maybe?"

"Why are your eyes red?"

Valaina looked at Fili with a perplexed look on her face. "Um…is he always like this?" she asked.

Fili gave a nod though he still frowned at the elleth. "Yes," he said, his voice short. "Though he may have over looked the point that you are an _elf,_ I have not."

"I can tell," Valaina growled.

"What's with the hostility?" Kili asked with a confused expression.

"She's an _elf_, Kili," Fili said in anger.

"So? She's also a _lycan_, Fili."

"Elf."

"Lycan."

"Elf."

"Lycan!"

"Holy shit, I'm both!" Valaina snarled. "Now go away."

Kili looked hurt and Fili looked happy to oblige. "Will you help us?" Kili asked.

"Do you not see the glare your fellow _dwarves _are giving me?" she snapped.

Before Kili could reply, Fili grabbed his coat collar and dragged him toward the dining room. That's when the doorbell rang again. Valaina let out a loud snarl. "I'm going to _kill _Gandalf!" she said rather loudly. "I swear to the Valar, if it is more dwarves I will lose my mind!"

"Won't that be interesting," Dwalin muttered.

Valaina rounded on him, dagger out and pointing at the dwarf. "Don't push me! I am _far _from being in a good mood right now," she snarled.

Dwalin glared back at the elleth. "I'd be careful of where you point that," he said in a dangerously low tone as Bilbo went to open the door. "Females shouldn't be handling pointed objects."

"Excuse me?" Valaina growled as her grip on her dagger tightened, and she vaguely heard a crash and Gandalf's voice. "A _female_…"

"You heard me, _elleth_," the dwarf advanced on her, the others watching in anticipation. "A _female_. You don't belong here."

"And where would I belong?" her eyes flashed angrily.

"Back in a forest with your little forest animals happily flitting about in the trees like the rest of your kind," Dwalin sneered.

Valaina lunged at the dwarf, her anger getting the better of her. "Eärlindë!" Gandalf's voice shouted, stopping Valaina.

She stood poised to attack with a hateful glare on her face, and her eyes flashing in swirling reds. Valaina gave a growl as she rounded on Gandalf, the wizard was seething. "Get a hold of yourself of the Valar's sake!" he said in a disappointed tone.

A string of profanities in different languages escaped the elleth's mouth. "Valaina, that was not polite!"

"What did she say?" a red headed dwarf with a double headed ax in his hand said. "Does she insult us?!"

"Valaina-" Gandalf started, but unfortunately Valaina was too close to her Rage, an uncontrollable anger within her that arose whenever she was angry or her emotions got too out of whack.

"Yes," she snarled as her eyes flashed again, "I offer you bastards insult!"

"That is enough!" Gandalf yelled, and the light grew dark, but that helped little.

Valaina grabbed her head. "I'm going to lose it!" she growled.

"Don't you dare shift," Gandalf said angrily. "You promised me you could control your temper!"

"That was before I found out there were _eleven dwarves_!" she yelled back.

"You are the most obnoxious, temperamental elf I've ever known!"

"I'm the _only _god damn elf that is temperamental!"

"So much for a good impression."

"A good _impression?!_" Valaina yelled. "What the _hell_ are you talking about now? I'm in a room full of _dwarves _and my Rage is close to breaking and you're worried about a _good damn impression?!_"

"She's a bit touchy," Balin mumbled to Dwalin, but unfortunately Valaina heard.

She rounded on the elderly dwarf, and he, along with the others took a step back as Valaina's irises glowed red. "Yes," she growled, "so it seems I am."

"Valaina," Gandalf said in hard controlled calm, "go get a hold of yourself and come back in time for supper."

"We are-" Dwalin started but stopped as a dagger embedded itself in the wooden wall an inch away from his ear.

"That's your only warning from me, _dwarf_," Valaina growled.

She caught sight of the open door and stalked out of the house, thirteen pairs of eyes on her back. As soon as she was out of the house, she shifted. White fur sprouted all over her, and the sound of bones cracking and growing reached the dwarves ears as a white wolf six feet at the shoulder stood outside. She let out a blood curling howl before she took off down the road at a dead run. "Wow," Kili said as he scratched his ear. "She's loud."

"She's angry, and that is the last thing we need," Gandalf grumbled. "I warned you to not anger her, Dwalin, and you did!"

"She was asking for it."

"Next time I'll let her take you outside for a good beating," Gandalf said angrily. "She'll be back in a few minutes, and we will all be as _civil _as possible."

"She seems nice enough," Kili said to his brother.

"What part of she's an elf don't you get?" Fili asked exasperated.

"Well, does she act, sound, or even seem like an elf? Or does she seem more like one of those Dunedain rangers to you?"

Gandalf caught their hushed conversation and hid a smile. Now that Kili had mentioned it, Valaina did seem more like a ranger than an elf. "Whatever, Kili," said Fili as he moved to help with the setting up of the table.

"At least _someone _needs to give her a chance!"

"And it had to be you."

"No one else would."

Gandalf looked out the window and saw a black mare run past the windows and then back with an elf chasing after the mare. "She went to talk with her horse," Gandalf mumbled. "Of course she did."


	3. Chapter 3: Supper with Dwarves

Chapter 3: Supper with Dwarves

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**A/N: Um...remember what I said about posting every week? Screw that, I'm going to post every other day, more or less. I can't help it! I love writing and I love Valaina, even though she ****_is _****my OC XD I enjoy delving into Middle Earth with her and the other characters, and I have the same drive to write as I did with ****_Scarlet Eyes_****. So, here we are with another chapter! I had this one and the next chapter done yesterday, and I could have made a new record with 4 chapters. But I resisted! And I shall resist the urge to post the other 2! XD OH! And for those of you who haven't noticed, this book is rated ****_T _****because of fight scenes and Valaina's less-than-elf-like mouth. (meaning she curses when angry)**

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** Seriya Silvermist (Ch.1): **Yes, Gandalf tends to be confusing and Valaina usually has a few rebounds from it XD And thank you. Ah, yes, Legolas...the minor detail I overlooked...he's in the movie...shizzzzz...I don't know yet. I'll figure something out, but I will make sure that his and Valaina's paths don't cross drastically that he should remember her in sixty years when they go on the quest. That will be a hard part to write depending on how the movie goes (In freaking DECEMBER! Upset about _that _fact...having to wait seven months for the next amazing movie...)

** Seriya Silvermist (Ch.2): **I know, I missed her as well, though not for long XD And yes, shall we begin? And this was a fun chapter to write as I usually write and watch the movie at the same to so not to leave anything important out. I loved the dinner scene! Bilbo is such an animated character, I hope I do him justice. Well, shall we begin? XD I ramble too much...

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Valaina made her way back to the house, still angry but calm enough to rejoin the others. She shut the door with a frustrated sigh, her left arm hurting her. She went to speak with Isil, and had nearly gone completely into her Rage where she would lose herself to her wolf's thirst for evil's blood, and she wouldn't come back until her anger was quenched. Isil, being a smart horse as she was, kicked Valaina in her arm. Valaina, no doubt, would sport a huge bruise along with a massive gash for the time being. Her sleeve had been cut through and her blood covered half her bicep.

Valaina moved closer to the pantry near the dining room, and caught sight of Fili and Kili carrying a large barrel of ale, no doubt. "Fili, Kili," Gandalf said as he began to count off the names. "Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Oir!"

Oir released whatever he was holding and another dwarf walked up to Gandalf, spoke in dwarvish, then clasped his hand on his forearm. "Yes, you are quite right, Bifur. We appear to be one dwarf short," Gandalf sighed.

Valaina gave a huff and crossed her arm over her chest and rested her face in her other hand propped up by her arm. "Deep breaths, Valaina," she muttered. "Don't strangle anyone…not yet."

"He is late, is all. He traveled north to a meeting with our kin. He will come," Dwalin said.

Soon, all the dwarves were sitting at the table along with Gandalf, their plates heaping full with food. Valaina leaned against the wall to the dining room and watched the boisterous dwarves eat. They laughed and talked loudly. Valaina watched as one dwarf tossed a biscuit to another at the end of the table, the big, overly fat dwarf with a bald spot on the top his head in the midst of a lot of red hair and a red braided beard to match, caught the biscuit in his mouth, and the other dwarves cheered. Gandalf gave Valaina a look. "Join us," he said.

"Oh, hell no," Valaina grumbled.

Fili had grabbed more tankards of ale and was turning to the table. He caught sight of Valaina and gave her a frown as she moved forward. "I'll take one, thank you very much," she grumbled as she snatched an ale from the dwarf's hand, tipped it back, and downed it whole in one clean motion. "Damn, that's good," she said as she turned and moved to get more.

"She drinks ale…" Fili mumbled in astonishment as Valaina drank down two more glasses.

"Valaina, don't go drinking all of the ale, now!" Gandalf yelled over the din.

"Hardly!" she called back as she raised her fifth. "Remember what I said the other day at the _Prancing Pony_? About ale?"

"Oh," Gandalf smiled. "I remember!"

"Who wants an ale?" Fili said as he made his way carefully across the table, stepping over food and plates and drinks. "There you go."

"Over here, brother!" called Kili as he raised his hand toward his brother.

"Ale on the countr of three," Bofur said as the dwarves all cheered with their glasses. "One! Two!"

"Up!" Kili yelled.

All was silent as the dwarves downed their drinks, a few more courteously than the others. Dori belches a bit, and then the youngest of the dwarves lets out a huge belch, ending with all the others cheering and laughing. "I knew you had it in you!" one of them yelled.

Valaina downed her tenth drink, neither tipsy nor drunk. "Oi! What number are you on there, lass?" one dwarf called out to Valaina as she filled her mug up once more.

"I'd say my eleventh," she responded and raised her glass up to the dwarves before tipping her head back and draining another mug only to refill it once more.

"How many can you drink?" Bofur asks.

The dining room was eerily silent as the dwarves looked to her curiously. They may not like her being an elf, but they were sure curious as to her odd behavior. "Well, let's see…" she mentally ticked off the drinks from the other night, and then turned to Gandalf. "Remember the man that challenged me to that drinking contest the other night? How many did I go that time?"

"I'd say about twenty-two," Gandalf replied. "He went down at six."

"Twenty-two? Is that it?" Dwalin challenged.

"That was before I saw the man was passed out on the ground," Valaina said before she drank her fourteenth glass.

"You weren't even the slightest bit drunk, Eärlindë," Gandalf smiled. "I wonder just how many you can drink."

"Yeah, I'd like to see that happen! No one can out drink a dwarf," Bofur yelled and the dwarves cheered.

Valaina downed another mug before fixing Bofur with a sly look. "And how many glasses can you drink in one sitting?" she asked.

"Well…um…I don't know."

"More than twenty!" someone yelled out loud.

Valaina gave a smirk as she refilled her cup a few more times. "That's a near good twenty-six," Gandalf said as he took a bite of a biscuit.

"I'm a tad bit thirsty, but not the slightest bit affected," Valaina said as she filled her glass again. "Twenty-seven."

"Good, lord," one dwarf said as Valaina knocked out a few more. "That's thirty-one!"

Valaina refilled her mug once more and downed it easily. "Thirty-two, and I shall stop there before I drink Mister Bilbo out of his house," Valaina said. "Got any water, Bilbo?"

"Ah, yes!" he said as he took her mug.

"Thirty-two," Dori said in awe. "Now I have seen only a few others drink that much."

"Most elves will start to feel the effects after twenty," Gandalf explained, "but Valaina is not affected by alcohol. Her lycan burns it up, leaving her to slowly become dehydrated as she continues to drink as her body doesn't accept it."

"That's why I can drink plenty more than just thirty-two," Valaina said and thanked Bilbo for the water which she quickly downed, her burning throat sighing in gratitude as her thirst was quenched. "So far I my count is around forty-three?"

"Forty-four," Gandalf corrected.

"Forty-four, then. I would not suggest challenging me to a drinking game."

Dwalin grumbled in disappointment before the dwarves took up their cheerful talking with each other once more. Valaina found herself wondering what it would be like if she were also sitting and laughing with them, enjoying dinner with the dwarves as they accepted her. She frowned, the thought disappearing from her mind. _No, they will not accept me as a friend_, Valaina thought as she turned and headed toward the kitchen to place her drink in the sink. "Why the long face, lass?" someone asked her.

Valaina found herself facing one of the younger dwarves, Ori. "Just thinking," Valaina grumbled. "I do that too often."

"Your arm's bleeding."

Valaina gave a huff. "I forgot about that," she said. "Thanks."

She moved away from the dwarf and stood in the hallway under a chandelier where she had the best light so far. She inspected her arm and it was, indeed, still bleeding, and drew a bandage from a small pouch on her hip. She pulled back the cut sleeve and saw just how bad she had been cut. She drew her dagger and cut the sleeve off, her shoulders the only thing left covered on her arm. "Shit!" she said as the severity of the wound really showed.

A black and blue bruise covered half of her bicep, and several long gashes ran from her shoulder to her elbow. "What the hell did she do?" Valaina growled as she entered the kitchen once more, and then remember what exactly happened. The horse had kicked her and then she had taken one of Valaina's extra daggers and attacked Valaina. It was understandable as Valaina nearly attacked a poor hobbit couple out of her anger. She took her dagger and cut the sleeve off her other arm and balled it up. She dipped it into the sink filled with water and moved to sit on top of a large wooden chest that held coats. Carefully, Valaina began to clean her arm with gritted teeth as she reopened a few that had just closed. "What are you doing?" someone asked and Valaina looked up. It was Fili, and he had gone to pour more ale. "What in the world did you do?" he asked with wide eyes as he caught sight of Valaina's arm.

"My mare," Valaina said as she continued to clean her arm, "saved me the trouble of letting some anger out."

"Huh?"

"She kicked me and then sliced me up with one of my daggers."

"Oh…"

Valaina finished cleaning her arm and expertly wrapped it up with her bandage, her blood slightly bleeding through a bit. "Can I help you?" she asked as Fili had yet to move from his spot.

"Um…ale," he mumbled and moved off to find the ale.

"That's what I thought," Valaina grumbled as she threw away her cut up sleeves.

"I just don't understand what they are doing in my house!" Bilbo huffed as Valaina came to stand next to Gandalf

"Excuse me," Ori said as he walked up to Bilbo, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but what should I do with my plate?"

Before Bilbo could reply, Fili stepped in. "Here you go, Ori. Give it to me," he said as he took the plate and tossed it overhand passed Gandalf, who promptly dove to the side, and Valaina dodged the plate as she back up against the wall.

Kili caught the plate with his right hand as his pipe was in his left hand, turned and tossed it to another dwarf standing at the sink. He turned and tossed another to the dwarf at the sink who caught both plates without so much as looking up, before Kili turned and beamed at Valaina. "Let's see you do that!" he challenged.

"I'm only good at throwing knives, and they usually end up in someone's face or neck," Valaina responded coolly, and Kili gave her an upset puppy look for a few seconds before his smile returned.

Plates were tossed to Fili who would promptly toss them to Kili who would then catch them with style and toss them to Nori at the sink. Fili and Kili began to annoy Bilbo further as they bounced the plates and bowls from elbow to elbow or from their foot before catching and tossing it on. The dwarves still sitting began to form a beat with their forks, knives, and feet. "Could you not do that? You'll blunt them!" Bilbo said angrily.

"Ooh! Did you hear that lads?" Bofur said as they continued on. "He says we we'll blunt the knives!"

_"Blunt the knives, bend the forks,"_ Kili started the song up and his brother joined in the next line.

_"Smash the bottles and burn the corks."_

Soon, the other dwarves joined in. _"Chip the glasses and crack the plates!"_

_"That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!"_

Bifur pulled out a giant pot for dishing and, the plates began to fill it up. "_Cut the cloth, tread on the fat!_" plates were tossed to Ori who caught them all in his hands.

_"Leave the bones on the bedroom mat!"_ Dwalin used his head to bounce cups to Nori who kicked them up with his feet to another dwarf.

_"Pour the milk on the pantry floor!" _

"Holy-" Valaina yelled out as she ducked a flying plate.

_"Splash the wine on every door!"_

Kili, who somehow managed to wedge himself between the door frame and was off the ground, tossed up a plate and Fili dove into a roll, and popped up to catch the plate while Ori carefully made his way to the kitchen with the stacks of cups and bowls. Poor Bilbo looked mortified. Valaina stood up and Kili tossed her two plates. She caught them in each hand before turn and tossing them with a flourish to Fili, the dwarf's blue eyes wide in shock as Valaina joined in. "Screw it, might as well," she said to Kili and caught his brown eyes, an amused expression in them at his brother's shock.

_"Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl!"_ the dwarves continued as the plates were rolled, tossed, and twirled to each other.

Balin sat with one plate in his hand. As plates were rolled to him, he twitched his hand holding the one plate and sent each plate on its way behind him. _"Pound them up with a thumping pole!"_

Kili had a knife in his hand and he tossed it to Nori who caught it before it could impale his eye. Valaina popped a cup up into the air with her elbow, the cup arching over to Fili who kicked it to Nori. "This is ridiculous," she said though a small smile played at her lips.

_"When you're finished, if they are whole!"_

Plates were handed to Bombur, the fat dwarf cleaning some of them off real quick before sending them on. _"Send them down the hall to roll!"_

Bofur played a flute (where he got it, Valaina did not know), and Oin used a teapot to join in as the music and beat continued and dishes flew toward Fili and Valaina. Valaina caught two plates in between her fingers, and tossed them on. Someone tossed a bowl off to the side, and Valaina dove, caught it, popped up and sent it on along with another plate. The flow soon stopped and she joined the dwarves in the dining hall as the plates finished being cleaned. _"That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!" _the dwarves ended and laughed at Bilbo's shocked face.

Kili and Fili had a huge kick out of Bilbo's mortified and shocked look. "Look at his fa…" Kili started before doubling over in laughter.

Valaina smiled and gave a soft chuckle, the laughter contagious. _"You're smiling," _Gandalf thought to Valaina. With her being a lycan she could hear and convey thoughts with others at some points, which became helpful in dire situations.

_"It was kind of…fun!" _she thought back to Gandalf.

But then, the fun was over as a rough pounding on the door brought silence upon the room. "He is here," Gandalf said in a serious tone.

"Who is here?" Valaina asked. "Another dwarf?"

Gandalf moved to the door through the living room, the eleven dwarves, the hobbit, and the elf following. "Who's here?" she asked Kili.

"Our uncle," said the dwarf in a serious tone.

Gandalf opened the door and there stood yet another dwarf, but he, too, was like Kili and Fili with good looks and a more noble air about him. He had black hair with a few streaks of dark grey that fit him well along with a braid on either side of his head, and a dark, short, trimmed beard to match his features. He looked very much like a warrior at the same time a man of great respect and power. "Oh…shit…" Valaina said as she finished taking in the tall dwarf,

"Gandalf," the new dwarf said walking in and a few dwarves bowing their heads. "I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way, twice. I wouldn't have found it at all had it not been for that mark on the door."

"Mark? There is no mark on that door. It was painted a week ago," Bilbo said perplexed.

"There is a mark. I put it there myself," Gandalf reassured the hobbit.

"Where are you going?" Kili asked quietly as he spied Valaina trying to creep away.

"I have over stayed my welcome. It is high time I go," she said trying to sneak away.

"No! You have to meet Uncle!" Kili said before he moved forward to stand in at the front to greet his uncle.

"I don't have a choice, do I?" she stated more than asked as Gandalf gave her a stern look to stay.

"Bilbo Baggins, allow me to introduce the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield."


	4. Chapter 4: Joining an Adventure

Chapter 4: Joining an Adventure

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**A/N: So...um...here's chapter 4...I have four more chapters ready to be posted, but I won't post them yet because I don't want to rush it all. *sad face* I love writing too much...anyway, enjoy! I know the first few chapters don't have a lot of action in it, but I just finished the troll scene, and I can't wait to post it! I may post two chapter at once tomorrow or something...I don't know yet. Tell me if y'all want the next four chapters tonight or not. ^-^**

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** Seriya Silvermist:** Lol, it was a good scene. And yes, that is quite the shocker, huh?

** The Lead Mare: **I don't know about that. But thanks for reading _Scarlet Eyes_! And sorry about making you cry from that...I've done that to a lot of people including myself...

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"So," he said in a severe tone as he handed Kili his cloak, "this is the hobbit. Tell me, Mister Baggins, have you done much fighting?"

"Pardon me?"

"What's your choice of weapon? Ax or sword? What's your weapon of choice?" Thorin asked as he circled the hobbit like a vulture.

"Well," Bilbo started with a prideful smile, "I do have some skill at conkers, if you must know. But I fail to see why that is relevant."

Thorin stopped and crossed his arms, sizing the hobbit up. "Thought as much. Looks more like a grocer than a burglar," he said with a smirk as the other dwarves chuckled.

"I'd also like to introduce you, Thorin, to a friend of mine," Gandalf said with concealed unease as he looked for Valaina. "Valaina."

Valaina gave a sigh of defeat as the dwarves parted for her. Kili gave her an encouraging smile while Dwalin and Fili glared at her. She met Thorin's hard gaze with one of her own, taller than the dwarf by a few inches. "This is the lycan you told me about, Gandalf?" Thorin said moving to circle Valaina as well, a soft growl escaping the elleth's lips. "Do you even know how to use those blades?"

"Come a bit closer and you will find out," Valaina snapped.

"She is still a female," Thorin said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "She will only burden us down on the journey."

Valaina glared down at Thorin, her red eyes swirling in different hues. "Are we really going to go through this?" she asked. "Because I will be happy to show you just how much of a _burden _I really am."

"Eärlindë," Gandalf warned.

Thorin glared back at Valaina. "This little show you are putting up will not change my opinion of you, _she-elf_. You won't even be able to keep up with us, let alone fight."

"Let me tell you something, Thorin Oakenshield," she growled with a step closer to the dwarf, "I've fought far more battles and stronger foes than you could ever imagine. I've found myself closer to death countless of times on my own, only to fight my way through. Do you think I won my battles by sheer luck and a bat of my eyelashes?" the dwarf said nothing. "I didn't think so."

"Your temper is beginning to get the better of you, Eärlindë," Gandalf warned.

Valaina gave an un-elf like snort and crossed her arms over her chest. "Whatever…"

"I don't trust you one bit, scarlet eyes," Thorin said with a glare. "But Gandalf asked you to accompany him, and I will let you."

Valaina went to give a retort, but shut her mouth at a glare from Gandalf. Instead, a string of profanities in elvish escaped her lips. Gandalf looked appalled. "Valaina, watch your mouth!" he exclaimed.

"I would have thought you'd be used to my cursing by now, Gandalf," Valaina grumbled.

"You are by far the oddest elf I've ever known."

"I'm the only odd elf you've ever met."

Thorin moved away from Valaina and followed Balin to the dining room where a plate of food was placed at the head of the table for him. The other dwarves and Gandalf sat down as Thorin ate his meal in a very civilized manner. Valaina stood leaning against the wall, perfectly fine in not having to say anything to the dwarf lord. "What news from the meeting of Erad-Luin? Did they all come?" Balin asked.

"Aye, envoys from all seven kingdoms," Thorin answered.

"All of them!"

"What did the dwarves of the Iron Hills say?" Dwalin asked. "Is Dain with us?"

"They will not come," Thorin answered. "They say this quest is ours and ours alone."

"You're going on a quest?" Bilbo asked.

"Bilbo, my dear fellow," Gandalf said a little surprised the hobbit was so close, "let us have a little more light." He pulled out a map. "Far to the east, over ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single, solitary peak."

Thorin gave Gandalf a frown as the wizard opened a map and set it before him. "The Lonely Mountain," Bilbo read as he held a candle up.

"Aye, Oin has read the portents and the portents say it is time," Gloin spoke up as the other dwarves grumbled and rolled their eyes, some sighing as well.

"Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain, as it was foretold," Oin confirmed. "When the birds of yore return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end."

"Uh, what beast?" Bilbo asked with fear on his face.

"That would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, the chiefest and greatest calamity of our age," Bofur answered. "Air-borne fire breather, teeth like razors, claws like meat hooks. Extremely fond of precious metal."

"Yes, I know what a dragon is," Bilbo said quickly and fearfully.

Valaina stood up from the wall, her interest peaked. "Now that is a challenge," she muttered.

"I'm not afraid of it! I'm up for it! I'll give him a taste of Dwarfish iron right up his jacksie!" Ori stood up and said confidently.

"Good lad, Ori!" Nori called out.

"Sit down," Dori said as he pulled the young dwarf back into his seat.

"The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us," Balin said. "But we number just thirteen. Not thirteen of the best, nor brightest."

"Here, who are you calling dim?" Nori challenged.

"What did he say?" Oin asked.

"We may be few in number," Fili said as he slammed his fist down on the table, his blue eyes bright and excited, "but we're fighters. All of us, to the last dwarf."

"And do you forget that we have a wizard in our company," Kili joined in enthusiastically with a bright smile. "Gandalf would have killed hundreds of dragons in his time."

"Well, no I wouldn't say-" Gandalf started.

"Well, how many then?" Dori asked.

"What?"

"How many dragons have you killed?"

Valaina resisted the urge to laugh as Gandalf chocked on his smoke.

"Go on, give us a number!"

The dwarves entered an uproar of an argument with each other over what Valaina knew not. "Wow," she mumbled as she watched the crazed argument unfold before her.

"Excuse me. Please," Bilbo said trying to calm everyone.

Thorin stood up and shouted at them in dwarvish, the dwarves sitting back down into their seats immediately. "If we have read these signs do you not think others will have read them too? Rumors have begun to spread. The dragon, Smaug, has not been seen for sixty years. Eyes look east to the mountain assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected. Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours? Or do we seize this chance and take back Erebor?"

The dwarves roar up in agreement, cheering at Thorin's words of encouragement.

"You forget, the Front Gate is sealed," Balin said. "There is no way into the mountain."

"That, my dear Balin, is not entirely true," Gandalf said as he pulled out a key.

"How came you by this?" Thorin asked in sheer awe.

"It was given to me by your father. By Thrain. For safekeeping. It is yours now."

Gandalf handed the key over to Thorin who took it gently. "If there is a key, there must be a door," Fili said.

"What makes you say that?" Valaina muttered sarcastically.

"These runes speak of a hidden passage to the Lower Halls," Gandalf continued.

"There's another way in," Kili spoke up excitedly.

"That's why we have a key and a map," Valaina muttered.

"Well, if we can find it, but dwarf doors are invisible when closed," Gandalf said.

"Isn't that a shocker," came the sarcastic response by Valaina.

"Eärlindë, if you are going to keep doing that I may just knock you upside the head."

"Well-"

"Be quite now. The answer lies hidden somewhere in this map but I do not have the skill to find it. But there are others in Middle Earth who can. The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth and no small amount of courage. But, if we are careful and clever then I believe it can be done."

"That's why we need a burglar!" Ori said.

"Hm. A good one too. An expert, I imagine," Bilbo put in.

"This is going to get interesting," Valaina mumbled.

"And are you?" Gloin asked.

"Am I what?" Bilbo asked back.

"He said he's an expert! Hey!" Ori said excitedly.

"Me? No. No, no, no. I'm not a burglar. I've never stolen a thing in my life," Bilbo said astounded.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with Mister Baggins," Balin agreed. "He's hardly burglar material."

"Isn't that obvious?" Valaina asked.

"Aye," Dwalin put in. "The Wild in no place for gentle folk who can neither fight nor fend for themselves."

"He's just fine," Fili said.

"Oh, they agree to a hobbit traveling with them but not an elf?" Valaina growled under her breath. "That's hurtful…"

The dwarves began to argue once more amongst themselves, and Gandalf began to grow angry. "Enough! If I say Bilbo Baggins is a burglar, than a burglar he is!" he roared standing up, the lights growing dark only to lighten again. "Hobbits are remarkably light on their feet, and in fact, they can go unseen by most if they choose too. And while the dragon is accustomed to the scent of dwarf, the scent of a hobbit is all but unknown to him which gives us a distinct advantage. And, for Valaina's sake, I do not think he knows the smell of a lycan either."

"Thank you, Gandalf," Valaina muttered.

Gandalf sat down once more. "You asked me to find the fourteenth member of this company and I have chosen Mister Baggins. There is a lot more to him than appearance suggests. He's got a lot more to offer than any of you know. Including himself. You must trust me on this."

"Very well. We'll do it your way," Thorin said. "Even though I would chose the she-elf over him any time."

"No, no," Bilbo started.

"How touching," Valaina sneered at Thorin's words.

"Give him the contract," Thorin continued.

"It's just a summary of our out-of-pocket expenses, time required, remuneration, funeral arrangements, so forth," Balin said as he handed Thorin a contract who shoved it roughly into the hobbit behind him.

"Funeral arrangements?" Bilbo asked uncertain as he took the contract and began to read it.

Thorin stood up and moved over to Gandalf and bent to speak to the wizard quietly, though Valaina caught ear of what they said. "I cannot guarantee his safety," Thorin said.

"Understood."

"Nor will I be responsible for his fate."

"Agreed."

"Terms: Cash on delivery, up to but not exceeding one-fourteenth of total profit, if any. Hmm. Seems fair," Bilbo read and Gandalf gave a chuckle.

"Wait for it," Valaina said quietly. "He'll find something that will send him into a panic attack. Just watch. I wouldn't be shocked if he fainted as well."

"No doubt he will, Valaina," Gandalf muttered back to the elleth.

"Present company shall not be liable for any injuries inflicted by or sustained as a consequence thereof, including but not limited to, lacerations, evisceration…incineration?"

"Aye, he'll melt the flesh off your bones in a blink of an eye," Bofur said encouragingly.

"I don't think that's helping," Valaina offered though she couldn't help but smile at the frightened hobbit.

"You alright, laddie?" Balin asked as Bilbo gave a small whimper.

"Huh? Yeah," came the weak response as he bent over and made some kind of noise as he exhaled air quickly.

"No he's not," Valaina said.

"Feel a bit faint."

"You look a pale."

"That's not helping his cause, Valaina," said Gandalf.

"Think furnace, with wings," Bofur continued.

"And you say I'm not helping?" Valaina said to Gandalf as Bilbo looked dangerously close to passing out.

"Air," Bilbo replied. "I need air."

"Flash of light, searing pain, then poof. You're nothin' more than a pile of ash."

"Hmm," Bilbo said and Valaina saw the hobbit's face pale a bit. "Nope."

Bilbo fell over and landed on the ground out cold. "And you want him to go on a quest with you?" Valaina asked Gandalf. "He won't last very long."

"And you would last longer?" Thorin rebounded.

"Longer than any of you," Valaina growled, and Gandalf placed a hand on the elleth.

"Dwalin, get the hobbit in a chair," Thorin said as they all began to move toward the living room.

* * *

Some time later, the hobbit came around. Gandalf had given him a cup of tea to drink as he talked with him in quiet. Valaina leaned against a wall, staying out of the way of the dwarves as she delved into her thoughts. "What are you thinking about?" Thorin asked none too politely as he spotted the elleth's constant frowns, glares, and blank expressions.

"Memories of old," she responded with a heavy heart. "Some not so pleasant."

"I thought elves were supposed to always be happy yet here you are looking like your parents were killed the other night."

Valaina's red eyes met Thorin's brown, emotions swirling in the red orbs of the elleth. "In an essence, they were. My father killed my mother on my sixteenth birthday, and then he hunted me down for four years until a warg killed him. After my mother died, I was cast out of my home," she growled and the attention of the other dwarves moved to the elleth, "hunted by my own kin. It was a strange fate that I was able to make a select few friends at Rivendell to have a place among the halls of Elrond. Like you, I have no place to call home. I belong nowhere. Rivendell is the closest thing I have to a home, and it is still not close enough for me to stay. Trust me, Lord Thorin, when I say I know how it feels to be driven from your home, I know more so than any of you can imagine. At least you were spared of being hunted down by those you used to call your friends."

"Why would they drive you out?" Kili asked.

"I am hidden from Galadriel's sight, and she does not take kindly to that. They fear me, and fear drove them to hate me. Not that I care," Valaina growled.

"I think you do care," Thorin said harshly, "you're ego just won't let you show it."

"I know the pain, but that is all I dwell upon…sometimes. And my ego has nothing to do with this."

"You keep saying that."

Valaina resisted the urge to strangle the dwarf as he turned his back on her and walked off to talk with Balin. She stood just next to the living room where the dwarves had gathered. They began to hum, and she knew what was coming. After feasting, drinking, and talking, they had gathered around for one last song before the night was up and their journey began. Thorin started it. _"Far over the misty mountains cold. To dungeons deep, and caverns old. We must away, 'ere break of day. To find our long-forgotten gold." _The other dwarves stood slowly and joined in. _"The pines were roaring on the height. The winds were moaning in the night. The fire was red, it flaming spread. The trees like torches blazed with light."_

Valaina felt the song hit home and she walked away. "Where do you think you are going?" Gandalf asked.

"To visit Isil," Valaina replied.

"Are you sleeping inside or out?"

"I'll come inside in a few," Valaina said as she walked outside into the chilly night, though the winds did not bother her for as an elf temperatures did not affect her like others.

She stood next to her black mare as the moon rose high in the sky, the only lights coming from Bilbo's house. "Do you think we are right to accompany them on this quest, Isil?" she asked the mare.

Isil gave a nicker, her black nose nudging Valaina in assurance. The horse was ready for an adventure as well, and she only wanted to get started right away. Isil doused all doubts in Valaina's mind as she looked into the determined blue eyes of the mare. They would do whatever they could to help aid this quest, and they would earn the respect of the dwarves whatever it took.


	5. Chapter 5: The Start

Chapter 5: The Start

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**A/N: Here we go, the next chapter. This is kind of a filler chapter as well as the next one, but soon we will get some action in here!**

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**Thanks for Favoriting:**_  
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** Seriya Silvermist: **Thanks lol. And here's the update ^-^ May put up the next chapter later as well.

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Valaina woke up an hour before dawn, the sounds of snoring reached her ears. She slowly stood up from her awkward spot against the wall to the pantry, and placed her dual blades back into their sheaths. She had woken several times in the night with the blades drawn and her eyes wide. Her nightmares were back, and each time they got worse.

Luckily for Valaina, elves needed little sleep. She looked around for the little hobbit before turning and rummaging around in the pantry, looking for the slightest meal to eat. "And you criticized us for pillaging the pantry, yet here you are taking something for yourself as well," a voice said softly from the entrance to the pantry.

Valaina found an apple and bit into it as she turned to Kili, his bright smile meeting Valaina's expressionless face. "This is the first thing I have taken from his pantry," Valaina retorted. "Unlike you guys who took it all…well, almost."

"You're up early."

"I get up an hour or so before dawn every day," she mumbled around a mouthful of apple. "Besides, he said first light."

"Yeah, but he meant dawn."

"Close enough."

Valaina finished the apple and tossed the core into a nearby garbage before turning back to the pantry once more. "Hm…" she mumbled. "What else is left?"

"Well," Kili said as he moved next to Valaina and picked something off the shelf, "there are a few biscuits."

Valaina made a face. "Not in the mood for them. You all really did a good job of eating everything."

"We tend to be good at that."

Valaina shook her head and looked around again. "I've got some lembas bread in my saddle bags. I'll have some of that. Later this evening, I'm bringing down a deer," Valaina said to herself before she began to put her hair into a French braid, making sure the braid was tight enough to stay in place, but loose enough to not cause her head to hurt.

"You eat meat?" Kili asked in shock.

"Lycan, remember?"

"That's quite understandable."

"Wait a second!" Valaina said as she turned to Kili. "Why are you up so earlier?"

Kili shrugged. "I don't know. Just one of those mornings."

Valaina shook her head. "Dawn's approaching," she stated as she looked out the window.

Kili gave a sigh. "I guess I will go wake the others," he mumbled.

"You do that," Valaina answered as she made her way outside.

She found Isil grazing lightly in the morning air, the dew upon the grass and the birds singing as they began to wake up a well. Valaina gave the black mare three apples she had pocketed from the pantry. The mare ate them lazily as Valaina brushed her down and saddled her up. By the time the mare was ready to travel, the dwarves had woken up and eaten whatever was left, and they began to file out of the house, Gandalf waiting outside to count each one. Isil followed Valaina closely as she walked up behind Gandalf. "…Ori. That's all twelve. Shall we get going then?" the wizard said happily.

"What about Bilbo?" Ori asked.

"He will catch up if he comes," Thorin said.

"Well, are we going or not?" Valaina asked and Gandalf turned.

"Ah, you and Isil are ready then," said the wizard in a happy tone. "At least you didn't wake me at 'first light'."

"Trust me, I thought about it."

Isil gave a snort as Gandalf walked past them and down the road of the Shire, offended that the wizard didn't even say hello to her. "He's grumpy this morning," Valaina said to the mare as they followed Gandalf.

Soon, they were out of Hobbiton, and nearing a group of very shaggy ponies; dwarf ponies no doubt. Each dwarf got onto their own pony save one that was used as a pack pony. If Bilbo showed up, he would be riding the pack pony. Gandalf mounted a chestnut horse, and turned toward the road, ready to get started on their quest. Valaina swing-mounted Isil's saddle and the mare trotted off to catch up to Gandalf. "Eärlindë, if you'd be so kind as to ride in the back for the time being, that'd be lovely," Gandalf said.

Valaina and Isil gave an indignant snort and turned. "I see how it is," she grumbled.

The mare cantered trotted off to the back where Kili and Fili were riding. "What makes you come back here?" Fili asked in a heated voice.

"Gandalf," Valaina said. "Mean, grumpy old wizard."

"I heard that!" Gandalf called back.

"Thought stealing, personal space invading-"

_"I'd stop talking now," _Gandalf thought to the elleth.

_"-old man!" _Valaina finished in her head and Gandalf's laughed reached her ears.

Bets were being placed on whether or not Bilbo would show up as Valaina pulled herself back to the present and out of her rant. "Valaina, care to join us?" Kili asked.

"I don't carry gold on me," she said.

"Well, what do you think?"

"He'll come."

A silence fell over the dwarves as they continued to walk on. "I said it didn't I?" Dori spoke up. "Coming here was a waste of time."

"That's true enough," Gloin agreed.

"Ridiculous notion. Use a hobbit? A Halfling? Whose idea was it anyway?"

"That's not very nice, Dori," Valaina said from next to Kili. She had grown tired of riding by herself and had moved up next to the two brothers. "You have to give him some kind of credit. Hobbits are used to their quiet lives without any of the other races bothering them. You can't blame him."

"Wait!" someone shouted and Valaina picked up Bilbo's voice. "Wait!"

The dwarves stopped and turned to look at the breathless hobbit. "I signed it! Here," Bilbo said as he handed Balin the contract with his signature.

Balin took out his eye glass and inspected the signature before folding the contract up and placing both items away. "Everything appears to be in order. Welcome Master Baggins, to the company of Thorin Oakenshield," the old dwarf smiled and the others chuckled a bit.

"Glad to see you came, Bilbo," Valaina said as Isil moved forward to see the newcomer.

"That's a…big horse," the hobbit gulped. "And dark coated as well."

Thorin rolled his eyes at the hobbit's frightened compliment of Valaina's horse. "Give him a pony," he grumbled out loud before they began to move on once more.

"Oh, no, no, no. That won't be necessary. Thank you. I'm sure I can keep up on foot.

"Sure you can, Bilbo," Valaina said as Isil moved closer to the hobbit. "But only if we stay at this painstakingly slow walk."

"I've done my fair share of walking holidays, you know? Even got as far as Frogmoton once," the hobbit continued as the horses walked past him. "I-ah!"

Kili and Fili picked the hobbit up and placed him on Myrtl, the pony reserved for him. "Come on, Nori, pay up!" someone yelled and bags of coins were tossed back and forth.

"One more!" Kili yelled from the back and caught a bag.

"Pays to have a little faith," Valaina said as she caught a horribly thrown bag and tossed it over to Fili, "even if it is in a creature such as a hobbit."

"What is that about?" Bilbo asked Gandalf.

"Oh, they took wagers on whether or not you'd turn up," Gandalf answered. "Most of them bet you wouldn't."

"And what did you think?"

"Well," Gandalf started and then stuck his hand out and caught a bag of coins tossed to him. "My dear fellow, I never doubt you for a second."

Bilbo suddenly sneezed. "Oh, horse hair. Having a reaction," he said as he began to look in his pockets. "Oh, no. Wait, wait, stop! Stop! We have to turn around."

"What is it now?" someone grumbled.

"I forgot my hankerchief."

"Here," Bofur said as he ripped off a piece of his clothing, "use this!"

He tossed it to Bilbo and Thorin called to move on. Valaina smiled in amusment at the hobbit's face. "You actually smile," Fili said in fake shock.

Valaina looked at the blonde haired dwarf. "I do and I don't," she said with a frown. "Don't get used to it."

They followed a small stream through grassy hills with bunches of trees here and there for a while after they passed out of the thin forest. Valaina broke away from behind Kili and Isil trotted off. "Where are you going?" Kili asked.

Valaina ignored the dwarf as she cantered up to where Gandalf was right behind Thorin. "Isil and I are going for a run," Valaina growled. "This slow pace is killing me."

"Get going, then," Gandalf shooed her away. "We don't need your moody temper."

"No, she should stay with the rest of us," Thorin disagreed.

"That's too bad because we are going," Valaina answered with a slight growl. "_Caan'la ve, Isil_ (Let's go, Isil)," Valaina said to her horse.

The horse trotted off a little ways ahead of the company, tossing her head in excitement, before she gave a shrill neigh. She reared up slightly and danced to the side before taking off in a dead gallop, the dwarves and their ponies being left behind in the dust within seconds. Valaina let the mare run for a good ten minutes before she reluctantly turned and circled back, taking the long way around to the back of the line. "Why did she run off?" Valaina heard Ori question as Isil slowed to a canter. "Did she leave us?"

"She's feeling a bit slowed down," Gandalf explained, "and took Isil for a quick gallop around. She should be back in a minute or so."

"What did she expect," Dwalin grumbled, "that we'd be at Erabor in less than a day?"

"No, but she expected us to go at a faster pace than a mere walk."

Isil slowed to a walk and crept back into line behind Kili, Isil breathing slightly heavy. Kili and Fili turned around to look at the elleth. "Not horrible," she said, "but we could have gone longer."

"How often do you ride at a fast pace like that?" Fili asked.

"Often enough. Isil will generally lope, a pace between a canter and a gallop. Saves energy at the same time as traveling further and faster. She is a cross between an elven stallion and a desert mare. That's where she got her black coat from and her speed."

"She's a very pretty mare, indeed," Kili replied and Isil nicked to him, arching her neck in pride.

"You're hopeless, Isil."

The horse turned and gave her an appalled look as much as a horse can give one. They traveled for hours down a rocky valley, through an old, mossy forest, and now they were happening upon more grassy fields. Valaina was lying across Isil's back, her head upon the mare's neck. She looked completely comfortable in her position. "What are you doing?" Kili asked in shock and amusement as Isil prodded past the dwarf's pony lazily.

"Laying down, of course," Valaina answered as she looked up at the cloudy sky.

"How do you do that and find it comfortable?" Fili asked as well, and a few other dwarves looked back at the elleth.

Valaina shrugged. "I've done this for quite some time," she answered. "I'm used to it."

The sun began to set as they came up on a rocky slope that provided decent cover along with the few spotted trees around. Valaina turned in the saddle and looked at the spot. "We'll rest here for the night," Thorin said as they dismounted. "Dwalin, Nori, find some firewood. Bifer, Doir, Oin, settle the horses. Set up camp here."

Valaina dismounted Isil and scented the air, the faint trace of a mountain ram hitting her. "I'll hunt," she said as she loosened Isil's girth and hung the mare's bridle over the saddle. "I'll be back in less than an hour girl to give you a brush down."

"We'll see if she can really bring anything in," Dwalin grumbled as he came back with Nori and a heap of fire wood. "Kili, Fili, why don't you go see if you can find anything?"

"How about this," she said as Kili and Fili looked at her than at Dwalin and back, "whoever brings back the kill first, if either of us find any, the other has to take the first watch."

Fili and Kili smiled, the blonde dwarf thinking they had a better chance than the elleth. "Agreed," he said.

"Alright then," Valaina gave the two a smirk before turning and racing off down the path and into the rocks following the scent trail.

With her being an elf, she barely made any noise as she ran over the ground, dodging rocks and the occasional tree here and there. She stopped after a good five minutes and scented the air, the trail of ram growing stronger. She moved on, making her way over tough rocks and outcroppings with ease, her skill in hunting had certainly been honed over the hundreds of years. She scented the air once more, and this time found dwarf right over her head. "I think she went this way," Kili said.

"What, are you going to shoot it first before she can?" asked Fili.

"Of course!"

Valaina kept going, keeping quiet and sticking to the shadows as she made her way down the face of the rise and back up. The dwarves moved in the opposite way, and the ram scent came closer. Valaina stopped once more and scented the air, the ram's scent now strong. She moved carefully over a rock and saw two big horn rams, both large and able to feed the company. Valaina shifted, her white coat gleaming orange in the dying sunset. She jumped and slashed one ram's throat with her teeth, the animal falling to the ground dead and bleeding out. She moved to the second and watched as it stamped its hoof and charged, head down and horns out. The ram nailed Valaina in the side, sending her tumbling over the rock outcropping and right into a large boulder. "Oof!" she said as the air was knocked out of her.

The ram came at her again and she growled, ducking her head under the horns of the ram and coming up to clamp her jaws shut on the animal's neck. It let out a weak call before it fell limp. She let the animal drop with a huff. "Now to get back…with both of them," she mumbled.

Valaina gently picked the one that had attacked her up in her in jaws before moving over to nose the second onto her back. Slowly and carefully, she made her way back to the camp, Kili and Fili grumbling overhead every now and then about how they couldn't find any tracks of the damn rams. She gently jumped down from the rocks onto the path and walked the rest of the way to the camp, the weight of the rams becoming heavier with each step. _I think I need to start working out more often,_ she thought.

She walked into the camp, several of the dwarves jumping in fright of the large white wolf. She gave a nod to Gandalf as the wizard smoked his pipe. Gently, she placed the two rams down by the fire for whoever usually cooks to prepare them. She shifted once more and sat back. "Damn those things get heavy after a while," she said.

"Well, you were gone an hour. No doubt you took longer to get back," Gandalf said.

Kili and Fili came back from their unsuccessful hunt, Fili giving Valaina a glare and the elleth returning it with a smirk. "Guess who gets the first watch," she said as she walked past them.

"Never challenging her to a hunt again," Kili said disheartened.

Valaina smiled as she moved to Isil, the mare in the same state as she was left. Valaina un-tacked the mare and brushed her down as dinner was being set up, the smell of a rich soup with the ram meat tickling her senses. Isil stretched out her neck and back legs as Valaina brushed down her back. She gave a content sigh and Valaina smiled at the horse. "_Aey'ma lae amaemw_ (You're so weird)," she said as she fondled the mare's ears.

Isil turned her head toward Valaina and took the elleth's French braid into her teeth before tossing the hair up with a nicker. Valaina leaned into the mare's neck, closing her eyes as the mare leaned back into her. "_Ama irilela irilmwam meilwla ane anmilelac, illw anira oymaniram ama ve anira sema willvamla anirama amecc fa _(We have harder roads to travel, and the further we go the more dangers there will be)," she said to Isil, "_La fael, mellon nim, oem faelv irama ameanir sa _(Thank you, my friend, for being here with me)."

The mare nickered in a welcome, her eyes bright and full of adventure. "_Eo ama vaan laatyilmilanaw, ve ane Imladris _(If we get separated, go to Rivendell)."

The mare gave a nod in understanding and then her ears flashed back in warning. "Excuse me, but I thought you might want something to eat," Ori said as he handed Valaina a bowl of soup.

"Thank you, Ori," Valaina said as she took the bowl and spoon from the dwarf.

Ori smiled and hurried back to the fire. "Valaina, come join us!" Kili called out and received a sharp elbow from his brother.

Valaina hesitated, and Isil snorted. The mare began to gently push Valaina with her head in the elleth's back over to the fire where Kili and Fili had taken up a seat. "_Daro, Isil, daro _(Stop, Isil, stop)," Valaina said to the horse as she staggered along, weakly resisting the horse.

Isil stopped, her blue eyes bright with amusement as she whinnied at Valaina. "Shut up," the elleth said and gingerly sat down next to Kili.

The mare turned and walked back to where the other horses were tied down. "She has quite the personality," Kili said as they ate.

"That she does," Valaina answered. "I remember when I was training with her in trick riding how bad she was."

"What do you mean?"

"For starters, she faked a limp to get out of trick riding. We found out one day when she was limping and we stopped. I got off and asked Arwen, one of my few elvish friends, to walk her. Well, it turns out she forgot what foot she was limping on and limped on the wrong one. The next day we were practicing this one trick where the rider holds onto the saddle and swings around the front end of the horse back into the saddle. Well, she didn't quite like the idea of having to work that day. As she picked up into a gallop, I unhooked my right foot and started to swing myself over the saddle. She shifted to the right just enough to send me into a tree."

Kili and, shockingly, Fili began to laugh. "She really did that?" Fili asked.

Valaina nodded, a frown on her face. "Several times as well as purposely running me into a tree when she had enough for one day. It took me a good long while to actually be able to complete a few trick riding exercises on her. But that's after the fact she ran me into countless of objects other than trees."

"At one point, she ran you right into me," Gandalf said as he walked by and took Valaina's bowl. "I still find her running you into Aragorn quite funny as well. He told me it reminded him of how the two of you met."

Valaina buried her face in her hands in embarrassment. "Oh, please don't mention _that_!"

"At least it wasn't as bad as what happened with Elrond."

A small cry of embarrassment came from Valaina. "Don't mention _that _one either!"

"Elrond of Rivendell?" Fili asked in curiosity. "What happened that time?"

"Well," Valaina said as she lifted her face out of her hands, "I had perfected the trick I told you about earlier, and was performing it once more when Elrond got to close to the path and I kicked him. He fell backwards over a boulder and rolled into a tree."

Gandalf laughed. "You should have seen his face. He was quite surprised," he said.

"I thought I was dead, Gandalf! He was going to murder me!"

"Elrond? No, he would never do that."

"Want to bet?"

"No because you don't have any money on you."

"I don't carry any, that's why."

"Fili, Kili, you two have the first watch," Thorin said to the two dwarves, Valaina feeling as though he interrupted the conversation on purpose.

Valaina looked around and noticed many of the dwarves had begun to drift off to sleep, including Bilbo. Valaina stood up and stretched, her muscles flexing slightly. "Where are you going, Valaina?" Kili asked as he and his brother made themselves more comfortable against the rock wall they were leaning against.

Valaina gave a low whistle and Isil picked her way over to the elleth. She found a spot next to the rock wall and laid down with her legs folding up underneath her. "Over here?" Valaina said as she walked over to the mare and sat down against the horse's stomach, her light weight doing nothing to affect the horse. "I only need a few hours rest along with Isil. Might as well get some now before the soring sets in."

Kili went to say something but stopped when Fili elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow!" he said quietly. "What was that for?"

"She doesn't want to be bothered now, brother," Fili said. "And I am all too happy to leave her be."

Valaina drifted off into sleep as she leaned against her horse, her dreams seemingly okay until they began to take a turn for the worse.


	6. Chapter 6: Nightmares and Stories

Chapter 6: Nightmares and Stories

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**A/N: Here have another filler chapter for the day! Hope you all enjoy it. A little snarky Valaina in here.**

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**Thanks for following **_LuciferAndTheSkyFullOfDemons_**.**

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** jazica: **Thank you and I am glad you are enjoying this story ^-^

** Seriya Silvermist: **Thanks and fillers are hard to write XD I thought I failed the last one lol.  
**Valaina: **It is too!  
**Me: **Not really...

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She was running, running as fast as she could. From what, or whom, she did not know. All she could see was the thin forest, the trees in roaring flames, the grass burnt and upturned. She could see spots of blood here and there and the occasional body with an unrecognizable appearance with its mangled, torn dead flesh. Valaina's throat burned with the acrid taste of smoke, and she coughed. "Where the hell am I?" she asked out loud as she slowed to a stop in a broken, burning city of once mighty proportions.

Many people lay dead underneath rubble and others burned in the buildings, their screams tickling Valaina's ears, begging for help. Valaina watched as a winged being flew overhead, obscured by the smoke. Valaina found herself running against the flow of people. She had to know what was going on. A fireball hit a tall building, the stone shattering and raining down onto those below. Valaina had barely enough time to dodge as the stone came at her. She kept running to who knows where, when she finally came out of the burning city and saw the large path that lead up to a magnificent mountain, a single lonely peak. A giant, beautiful dwarven entrance with two large dwarf statues on either side, one wielding a hammer the other a sword, stood in front of Valaina. Large, dark clouds of smoke poured out from the front entrance as numerous amounts of dwarves raced out of the place. Suddenly, Valaina knew where she was. "Erebor," she mumbled as she raced forward.

The dwarves were covered in ash and soot, some even sported burn marks and other wounds. A dwarf woman to Valaina's right was being dragged away while she called out for her child, one of the men saying he had been killed. Others were being dragged out as well, while some were running on their own will. Valaina could feel the pain of the dwarves as they watched their home burn as it was invaded by a gold loving dragon. She could hear the pained cries of the dwarves, many yelling in dwarvish or saying prayers that would not be answered. She gently pushed the dwarves away, the need to get inside and help tearing at her heart. The dwarves didn't seem to see her as she ran, not even turning as she gently brushed them aside to get through.

A loud bang sounded and more smoke pour out of the Front Gate. Valaina ducked her head and raced inside, feeling for her blades but finding they weren't there. The smoke was thick, and the fire roaring as she ran against the flow of dwarves. A single head of black hair running toward the advancing dragon made Valaina stop in her tracks. "Thorin," she muttered, though no one heard her nor saw her.

She watched as the dwarves attacked the dragon, trying to fend it off. But Smaug's thirst for gold was too strong, and he plowed through the dwarves, crushing a few here and there. Valaina saw Thorin was dragging an older dwarf out as he called for the dwarves to retreat. The dragon had won. Slowly, she followed the dragon, the screams of pain reaching her ears and tearing her apart on the inside. She wanted to desperately help, but couldn't. She had no weapon, and they didn't see her. She could help, she could kill Smaug if only she had a weapon. Suddenly, the dragon turned to Valaina, his rows of sharp teeth glinting from his own fire. He drew himself up, taking in a deep breath. Valaina watched as the fire formed in the dragon's mouth, and then it was heading toward her, a jet stream of roaring flame. Valaina snarled, unable to do anything else as her feet wouldn't move.

* * *

Valaina – who had somehow managed to stretch out on the soft dirt floor next to Isil – bolted into a sitting position with her dual blades drawn and ready to attack. She looked around and calmed as she saw she was not in Erebor, and the dragon was not near her. She sheathed her blades as she propped herself against Isil, the mare still fast asleep. Kili and Fili had been watching the elleth as she tossed and turned, muttering something in elvish every now and then, before she sat up, ready to attack anything that came at her. "She was having a nightmare," Kili whispered to his brother.

"I didn't think elves could have nightmares," Fili answered.

"It looked pretty bad if she is ready to kill something."

"Then we should definitely not pull any jokes on her while she sleeps. She may end up tearing out throats out."

"I heard that," Valaina said to them in a low voice as she smoothed her hair down in a nervous fashion.

Valaina watched as Bilbo fed his pony, Myrtle, an apple. Suddenly, a screeching sound off in the distance reached their ears, a sound that suspiciously reminded Valaina of an orc. Bilbo turned back and looked at Kili and Fili, the two sporting a slightly worried look and looking much more awake and attentive. "Orcs," Kili said.

"They are getting bolder as the days go by," added Valaina as another cried out.

"Orcs?" Bilbo asked in fear as he quickly made his way over to the two dwarves.

Thorin snapped awake from his sitting position on a rock, looking very much attentive now. Valaina scented the air, but unfortunately if the orcs were near than they were upwind of them for she could barely get a scent. "I can smell them," she growled quietly, "but just barely."

"Throat-cutters. There'll be dozens of them out there," Fili said. "The low lands are crawling with them."

"They strike in the wee small hours when everyone's asleep. Quick and quite, no screams. Just lots of blood," Kili joined in with a fearful look on his face.

Valaina glared at them as the two turned to each other and lost their fearful looks, both chuckling as the hobbit believed them. "Don't scare the hobbit," she scolded.

"You think that's funny?" Thorin said as he made his way toward the four of them. "You think a night raid of orcs is a joke?"

Their laughing stopped immediately. "We didn't mean anything by it," Kili said crestfallen.

"No you didn't," Thorin said and stalked away. "You know nothing of the world."

"Don't mind him, laddie," Balin said as he joined them. "Thorin has more cause than most to hate orcs."

"Who doesn't?" Valaina growled as she stood. "Those cowards only ever attack in the night unless they have wargs with them. Besides, they wouldn't attack a company of well-armed dwarves. Not unless they had wargs with them, and even then they would be iffy on attacking."

Fili looked at Balin and then to Thorin. "After the dragon took the Lonely Mountain, King Thror tried to reclaim the ancient dwarf kingdom of Moria. But our enemy had got there first," Balin began. "Moria had been taken by legions of orcs lead by the by the most vile of all their race. Azog the Defiler."

Valaina felt the mind of the old dwarf open to her, and Valaina saw the memory in her own eyes as if it were before her. There, she saw a dwarf looking much like Thorin dressed for battle, standing up to a larger than man, white, scarred orc who wielded a nasty looking mace. Azog charged the young dwarf, nad Thorin fought back. Valaina could see the dwarves and orcs fighting on the mountain side to the entrance to Moria. "The giant Gundabad orc had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin. He began by beheading the king," Balin continued.

Valaina saw Azog hold up the head of the last dwarf king, yelling out in pride and victory. She gave a growl, and the three dwarves and Bilbo turned to her in confusion. Balin went on, "Thrain, Thorin's father, was driven mad by grief. He went missing. Taken prisoner or killed we did not know." Kili looked up at Balin, interested in the story. "We were leaderless. Defeat and death were upon us. That is when I saw him."

Valaina saw a young Thorin dressed in minimal battle armor with orc blood splattered over his arms, legs, and chest. He had been fighting for some time now. "A young dwarf prince facing down the pale orc. He stood alone against this terrible foe."

The image of Thorin standing up against Azog was astounding. Even Valaina had to admit the dwarf was going up against a much larger foe than he could possible defeat. Thorin tripped, falling a little ways away as his shield flew in another direction from Azog's blow. He grabbed a oak branch and used it as a shield against the pale orc's mace. "His armor rent, wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield," she heard Balin continue, and she saw as Thorin grabbed a discarded sword and slice off half of Azog's forearm. The pale orc sunk to his knees crying out in pain as he held his arm. "Azog the Defiler learned that day, that the line of Durin would not so easily be broken."

The forces of the dwarves came together as Thorin shouted in dwarvish to them, wielding the sword and the oak branch, before they charged the lines of orcs. "Our forces rallied and drove the orcs back. And our enemy, had been defeated," Balin said as the memory shifted.

The amount of dead orcs and dwarves littered the mountain side to the entrance of Moria. The bodies were strewn across the rock face. "But there was no feast nor song that night for our dead were beyond the count of grief. We few had survived."

The memory shifted again and Valaina saw the dwarves hugging one another and even a few crying. But, above all others, Thorin stood out the most. He had an air about him that radiated with power and kingship, something that few possessed. "And I thought to myself then, there is one who I could follow. There is one, I could call king," Balin finished and his mind was closed to her once more, bringing her back to the present.

Thorin turned around and found himself looking at the other dwarves who had awoken as well and were standing. He slowly made his way to them, making for his rock that he was sitting on earlier in an attempt to escape the memories no doubt. "And the pale orc?" Bilbo asked. "What happened to him?"

"He slunk back into the hole whence he came. That filth died of his wounds long ago," Thorin growled as he walked past the standing dwarves.

Valaina caught Gandalf exchange a glance with Balin, and she knew immediately that the truth of that statement was to be questioned. "How can you be so sure?" she asked hotly.

Instead of answering her, Thorin gave her a glare. "If orcs could tend to their wounds like we can, then they wouldn't be dying left and right," he said in the same manner.

Valaina made a face at Thorin's back, one that both Kili and Fili caught. They stifled their chuckles as best as they could to avoid attention. The dwarves settled back down into their sleeping mats. She sat down against the rock wall, Isil moving her head to rest it in the elleth's lap, soft snores coming from the mare.

But, as Valaina took a deep breath, she felt the wind change and the scent of wargs tickled her nose. She coughed violently for a few seconds, and Balin tossed her a water skin which she took a gulp from before tossing back. "Thanks," she managed to croak out.

"What did you smell?" Gandalf asked quietly, but Valaina heard him nonetheless with her elven ears.

"Wargs," she answered. "The wind shifted and caught me off guard."

"How far?"

"I can't say, the wind isn't strong enough for me to discern an exact location, but they are close. If they are anywhere, they are on the other side."

"Then they can stay there," Fili said. "I don't feel like having to fight them tonight."

"And why is that?" Valaina asked innocently.

"I don't feel like getting up."

"He's sore from riding all day," Kili gave away and received a huge smack across the back of his head.

"It's always good to know you've got my back, brother," Fili said as he crossed his arms.

"Ow…that hurt."

"Stop your complaining," Valaina said light heartedly. "He didn't hit you that hard."

"Why don't you come closer and find out?" Kili challenged as he rubbed the back of his hurting head.

"If you haven't noticed the giant horse head in my lap, I kind of can't. And I would rather not," she replied as she looked out across the clearing they were resting on. "The damn sun better hurry up."

"Valaina, it is only around eleven," Gandalf's complaint reached her ears.

"So?"

"So you have several _hours _until the sun comes back up."

"Oh…right…" came the embarrassed reply.

"Just go back to sleep."

She didn't want to, for fear of the nightmares coming back. She did not want to revisit Erebor, and she especially rather not have any other nightmares. Valaina looked around and shook her head, not a single tired streak in her. "I'll take the watch if you two want to sleep," she said to the two brothers. "I don't need very much sleep, and I do not think I will get any more tonight."

Fili and Kili said nothing, but soon they, too, were fast asleep along with the other dwarves, the wizard, and the hobbit. Valaina couldn't help but frown at them. They all looked so peaceful in their sleep, yet they had dangers ahead of them that not a single dwarf could foresee anything bad happening to them.


	7. Chapter 7: Trolls

Chapter 7: Trolls

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**A/N: I couldn't resist not putting this one up. The troll scene XD I laugh every time I watch it.**

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"Here, Mr. Gandalf, can't you do something about this deluge?" Dori asked.

They had taken up their line once more, and were riding through another forest. The only problem with this particular forest was that it was pouring rain. Valaina had to actually put her cloak on, one that looked more like a ranger's cloak than an elvish cloak. Her hood was drawn and she sat proud and tall in Isil's saddle, the rain not really affecting their mood too much. The other dwarves had also taken to drawing the hoods over their cloaks as well, and Gandalf had his hat. Poor Bilbo sat miserably on Myrtle's back. He was soaked to the bone and looked far upset.

"It is raining, Master Dwarf," Gandalf said in obvious annoyance, "and it will continue to rain until the rain is done. If you wish to change the weather of the world you should find yourself another wizard."

"Are there any?" Bilbo asked.

"What?"

"Other wizards."

"There are five of us. The greatest of our order is Saruman the White. There are the two Blue Wizards," Gandalf gave a pause, "do you know I've quite forgotten their names."

"And who's the fifth?"

"Well, that would be Radagast the Brown."

"Radagast!" Valaina said in admiration. "I very much like Radagast. He is such a sweet wizard, odd, but sweet."

"Is he a great wizard? Or is he more like you?" Bilbo asked with a frown.

Gandalf turned slightly and Valaina saw the upset look on his face. "I think he's a very great wizard, in his own way," he defended Radagast's name. "He's gentle soul who prefers the company of animals over others. He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the east and a good thing too. For always evil will look to find a foothold in this world."

Valaina remember the odd wizard. "He has his own way of doing things," she told Bilbo. "He is strange, but he wouldn't hurt a fly. Literally. He loves animals too much for his own good sometimes. Without hesitation, he even took me in once when I was a wolf. A good friend of mine had brought me to Radagast for help. I had been poisoned by the Valar knows what, and he helped me. Or, in better terms, saved my ass."

"You've met a lot of people in your life time, haven't you?" Bilbo asked.

"Well, yes. I am three hundred and sixty years old, Bilbo," Valaina said.

"That's quite young age for an elf," Balin said with a little interest. "Yet you only look like you are twenty. Shouldn't you look a bit older than that?"

"Let me tell you something interesting about my lycanthropy," Valaina said. "When my lycan powers awoke at the age of twenty, I became permanently frozen at that age. Appearance wise, of course, but even though elves are ageless, we do age to our full maturity. I will not go beyond twenty."

"That is interesting indeed."

* * *

They were riding up toward a mountain along a grassy area with giant boulders next to a clump of forests. The rain had stopped hours ago as they left the forest. Valaina caught sight of a burnt and broken down old house, nature beginning to reclaim it as her own. The line of ponies stopped as Thorin turned his own toward the other dwarves. "We'll camp here for the night," he said, his voice loud among the unnerving silence. "Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them."

"And don't get distracted," muttered Valaina.

Gandalf dismounted along with the other dwarves save but Kili, Nori, and Bofur. Valaina looked around and saw remnants of an old farm as Isil walked closer, her ears back in warning. "A farmer and his family used to live here," Gandalf said in a slightly worried tone.

"It looks like something big had torn through the house," added Valaina, "and then the areas caught on fire. But, how long ago?"

"Oin, Gloin, get a fire going," Thorin said.

"Right you are," one replied.

"I don't know Valaina, but that is a good question."

"Bofur, can you not get off the horse?" Bifur asked.

"My legs hurt too much!"

"I think it would be wiser to move on," Gandalf called out.

"Something isn't right about this place," agreed Valaina. "We shouldn't stay here. The wildlife is too quiet for my liking."

"That's because they smell a lycan," Fili commented as he stroked his pony's nose.

"Or maybe it's because they smell you, Fili," Kili retorted.

Fili gave his brother a glare but then the two broke out in chuckles as they shared a joke together. "We could make for the Hidden Valley," Gandalf said as Thorin came to join him under the broken house.

"I have told you already that I will not go near that place," Thorin grumbled.

"Why not? The elves could help us."

"Hey, I am helping you!" Valaina called out but Gandalf ignored her.

"Other than you, Valaina. We could get food, rest, advice," he continued.

"I do not need their advice," came the short reply.

"Glad to know," Valaina grumbled.

"We have a map that we cannot read. Lord Elrond could help us," Gandalf insisted.

"Help?" Thorin asked incredulously. "A dragon attacks Erebor. What help came from the elves? Orcs plunder Moria, desecrated our sacred halls. The elves looked on and did nothing. And you ask me to seek out the very people who betrayed my grandfather. Who betrayed my father."

"You are neither of them. I did not give you that map and key for you to hold onto the past."

"I did not know that they were yours to keep," Thorin retorted hotly.

Gandalf gave an agitated huff and stormed off. "Everything all right?" Bilbo asked from beside Balin and his white pony. "Gandalf, where are you going?"

"To seek the company of the only one around here who's got any sense," the wizard said angrily as he walked through the dwarves.

"And who's that? Valaina?"

"Hey, don't look at me," she said as a few of the dwarves looked at her.

"Myself, Mister Baggins!" the wizard yelled angrily. "I've had enough of dwarves for one day and the snarky comments from an elf."

"And you say I lose my temper?" Valaina muttered as Isil turned and began to walk through the throng of ponies. "Do you need help with them?"

"Yes," Kili said at the same time Fili said, "No."

"Which is it?"

"Yes," both dwarves replied after a moment's pause to take stock of the horses.

"Come on, Bombur, we're hungry," Thorin said to the overly fat dwarf.

"You're letting him cook?" Bifur asked in shock.

"So…" their voices trailed off.

"Is he coming back?" Bilbo asked Balin who shrugged. "Valaina?"

"He's Gandalf," she said simply. "And Gandalf does what he thinks he must do, which is why he is seeking solitude. He'll be back, I know it."

"You couldn't have started out with that first?"

"Wizards and their riddles tend to rub off on you at some point in time."

* * *

Night had fallen and the soup was being dished out. Isil refused to stay with the ponies and instead kept a watchful eye on Valaina. Fili and Kili were the ones with the ponies for the night. Valaina ate her quickly and quietly, not bothering to really stop and taste it. She wasn't hungry but she forced herself to eat anyway. The other dwarves were sitting around the fire eating as well, and Bilbo was still keeping a watch for Gandalf's return. "He's been a long time," Bilbo said frantically.

"Who?" Bofur asked.

"Gandalf."

"He's a wizard. He does as he chooses. Here, do us a favor and take this to the lads," he said as he handed Bilbo two bowls. "Stop that, you've had plenty," he scolded Bombur as the fat dwarf went to spoon more into his bowl.

"Valaina-" Bilbo started but the elleth interrupted him.

"Yeah I'm coming, _relosso_," she said as she stood up with a stretch.

"What did you call me?" Bilbo asked curiously as she made her way over to him.

"Coward."

"Hey that's…well…never mind…"

The dwarves chuckled at the hobbit as he followed Valaina to where the ponies were being kept. "Aye, it's not a bad stew, Bombur," Gloin yelled out to the other dwarf. "I've had worse."

"Dori could've cooked it!" Nori said as he laughed.

"Hilarious," Dori said, clearly not amused.

They walked past six ponies around the large rocks and into the first to trees. The two brothers were stock still as Valaina and Bilbo approached. Bilbo walked forward and held out two bowls of stew for them, yet neither moved, a frown on each dwarf's face. "What's the matter?" Bilbo asked.

Valaina heard the sounds of night creatures, and she knew the dwarves were either going to play a trick on the hobbit, or they were being dead serious right now. "We're supposed to be looking after the ponies," Kili started.

"Only we've encountered a slight problem," Fili added.

"We had sixteen."

"Now there's fourteen."

"Didn't Thorin say to keep a _close _eye on them?" asked Valaina.

Fili glared at her before sharing a look with his brother. They turned and started to walk toward the ponies. "This isn't a joke is it?" Valaina asked.

"They are really are missing," Fili answered.

"Daisy and Bungo are missing," Kili said as he, Valaina and Fili walked through the ponies that were tied up in the barely distinguishable ruins of an old stable.

"And I was going to trust you two with Isil?" Valaina stated rather than asked.

"We had sixteen to watch," Kili defended hopelessly.

"Eight to a dwarf. That's reasonable enough."

"That is not good. Ha, ha," Bilbo said nervously. "And that is not good at all. Shouldn't we tell Thorin?"

"Er…no. Let's not worry him," Fili said as Kili examined two fallen trees. "As our official burglar, we thought you might like to look into."

Valaina got the feeling the two brothers were up to something, and it wasn't good. "Well, uh," Bilbo started and tried to sound remotely intelligent about a burglary. "Look, something big uprooted these trees."

"That was our thinking," Kili said.

"These were not ripped from the ground before," Valaina said and then she caught a scent. "Oh, goddess. Please don't tell me…"

"It's something very big and possibly quite dangerous," Bilbo went on.

"Hey, there's a light," Fili said dropping into a whisper. "Over here. Stay down!"

The moved to another fallen tree and crouched behind it, Valaina nearly gagging. "What's wrong with you?" asked Fili in a grumpy tone.

"What is it?" Bilbo asked.

"Trolls," Valaina and Kili answered at the same time.

They dwarves and Valaina jumped over the tree and moved closer to the offending trolls. One troll was carrying two horses, a chestnut and a white. "He's got Myrtle and Minty!" Bilbo whispered in anger and fear. "I think they're gonna eat them. We have to do something."

"Great, say that to the two dwarves who couldn't watch them," Valaina said as Kili and Fili turned their heads to Bilbo.

"Yes, you should," Kili said as he shifted to stand more or less behind a tree, taking a bowl from Bilbo as he did so. "Mountain trolls are slow and stupid, and you're so small, they'll never see you."

Bilbo began to object. "No, no, no! I-"

"It's perfectly safe! We'll be right behind you," Kili said with a face that looked convincing enough for the hobbit.

"If you run into trouble," Fili said as he took the other bowl, sent a devious smile to Kili and pushed Bilbo out toward the trolls, "hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a brown owl."

"Valaina, come on," Kili said as he and Fili pulled the elleth away, drinking the stew quickly.

"Twice like a barn owl. No, twice like a brown-Once like a-Like a-Are you sure this is a good idea?" Bilbo asked confused.

They began to race back to the camp. "Why the hell did we just leave him?" Valaina asked angrily. "He's going to get himself killed!"

"He's going to buy us time," Fili answered.

"Bilbo will be able to keep the troll distracted long enough for everyone to get their weapons and go after the trolls," Kili threw in.

"I could have taken them," said Valaina indignantly.

"We'll see just how good of a fighter you are," Fili said with a smirk. "Perhaps you were lying to us back at Bilbo's home."

"Would you really like to challenge me again?"

"No, no we wouldn't," Kili said quickly.

"Thorin! Thorin! Trolls! They have Bilbo!" Fili yelled out as they reached the camp.

Thorin, who had been dozing off, snapped away instantly and was on his feet yelling out orders to the dwarves to grab their weapons and follow them. They raced back to the forest. "If Bilbo's in trouble, I'll go out and get him," Kili said as he unsheathed his dwarvish sword.

"After you get Bilbo, we'll attack," Thorin said as they slowed to where they the trolls were.

"He's lying!" Valaina heard a troll say. "Hold his toes over the fire. Make him squeal!"

Kili rushed out, swinging his sword as he did so, hitting a troll in the leg causing it to howl in pain, before swinging again. The troll squealed once more and fell to the ground. "Drop him!" Kili yelled.

"You wha'?" the troll holding Bilbo said.

"I said," Kili twirled his sword threateningly, a slightly crazed look in his eye, "drop him."

"Hurry up! Come on!" Valaina mumbled as she unsheathed her dual blades.

"You're restless," Thorin commented.

An excited shiver for the anticipated battle ran up Valaina's spine, her red irises glowing red with excitement. "I've been waiting for something like this," she replied with a slight growl.

The troll gave a growl and tossed Bilbo into Kili who caught the hobbit. The dwarves and Valaina spring out with a yell. Valaina raced out, twirling her dual blades dangerously. She sliced the leg of one of the trolls before rolling underneath the meaty hand. A large cut opened up from her elven blade, and she could see the skin of the troll smoke slightly. "An elven blade!" the troll yelled. "The wench has an elven blade!"

"What?!" Valaina yelled as she stopped and glowered at the troll. "Did he just call me a wench?!" she asked Gloin as she pointed one of her dual blades at the troll.

"Aye," Gloin grunted as he swung his ax, "I believe he did."

With a growl, she swung her blades in an overhead arc and brought them down, slicing off two of the troll's fingers. "Grab the sacks! Stick them in the sacks!" another troll yelled.

"Oh, hell no!" Valaina cried out as she stabbed a troll's foot.

One troll was running to help another when Valaina took a throwing knife and threw it into the troll's bad eye. She caught sight of Kili race toward the running troll and at the last second slide underneath and pop up to stab the troll's thigh. Valaina caught sight of a barrel behind the troll and ran towards it. She twisted her dual blades to that they faced her forearms as she jumped, using the barrel to gain leverage. She landed on the troll's back and stabbed her blades into its shoulders before pulling them out and front flipping off the troll's head, the swinging hand catching her leg and sending her flying into a tree. The wind was knocked out of Valaina, and she was slightly daze for a moment before she realized that she needed to move. She forced herself to roll away just in time for a foot to land where she was moments before. With her breath back, Valaina jumped to her feet and stabbed the back of the troll's calf. "They aren't going down easily!" she said out loud.

"They are mountain trolls!" Gloin yelled at her. "What'd you expect?"

"That they'd be dead already," she growled back.

Valaina skid on the leaves as she changed direction sharply, and barely avoided careening into Gloin. She grabbed his arm and turned, throwing him at the staggering troll. He caught on quick and swung his ax around, slicing the back of the troll's knee. She saw little Ori armed with only a slingshot. He shot the cross-eyed troll in the eye, the troll yelling before chasing after him. Another troll grabbed Ori by the face and hoisted him up as Dwalin leaped over the boiling pot of stew to land in a crouching position, giving Gloin the leverage he needed to land a good blow on the troll's arm, freeing Ori in the process. Dwalin popped up and was already swinging his massive hammer when the troll came around to try and catch Gloin. His war hammer smashed into the troll's face, sending the troll backwards in a daze.

Dwalin saw Valaina running toward him, intending to go past, but he momentarily dropped his war hammer and used his hands to vault the elleth over to the dazed troll. Valaina brought her blade down across the troll's back, a steaming cut rising from the thick skin of the troll. The only reason the trolls were not bleeding to death at the moment, nor were they slowing down much either, was because of the hard, tough, thick layers of skin that took a lot of cutting to get through. Valaina slashed at a troll's leg again, and watched him stagger toward Nori, the dwarf momentarily tripping for a second before he slashed the same troll, sending Ori, who apparently was easy to catch, tumbling out of his hands once more. "Come on! Get up!" Kili yelled at Ori as Dori helped him up as well.

Valaina had grown excited and angry at the same time, for they were using all the skill they had to counter and hack at the trolls yet they were getting nowhere. Her swords didn't even have blood on them. She gave a growl as she spotted the eight remaining dwarves who had not been shoved into sacks regrouping together on the opposite side of the two trolls holding Bilbo's arms and legs, the hobbit suspended in the air by the trolls. "Bilbo!" Kili yelled and raced forward.

"Don't!" Thorin yelled as he grabbed him and pulled him back..

"Lay down your arms or we'll rip 'is off!" one troll yelled.

With an angry look, Thorin stabbed his sword into the ground, Kili following suit and tossing his angrily to the ground. The other dwarves threw theirs down as well, and stood glaring at the trolls. "Hey! Where's the stupid female?" one troll asked.

"Stupid…female?" Valaina growled again in total anger.

The troll not holding Bilbo turned to her. "Lay down your arms," he smirked.

Valaina let out a snarl, loud enough to make the troll look around the forest. "Wha' was that?" one asked.

Valaina sheathed her blades and shifted with a howl, enraged that the hobbit had to go and get himself captured, enraged that they had given up so easily. Her white fur was tinted orange from the fire as she stood proud and angry. "She turns into a dog!" one yelled. "William, can we keep her? She looks like a puppy!"

"Oh, hell no!" she snarled. "Not again!"

"Oi, Tom! Doesn't that look like the puppy that Fred had two years ago?" William, one of the trolls said excitedly.

"Yeah, she does," Tom answered. "Remember he said something about he was going to trade her for some right good mutton?"

"Puppy dogs don't taste good anyway. We can just trade her for mutton."

Valaina growled, her bright red eyes turning dark as she was lost to her Rage. She raced forward, using a barrel for leverage as she jumped at the troll, oblivious to everything else until her anger was quenched. The troll barely dodged in time, but Valaina still hit the mark as her claws gouged into the troll's eye, blinding him good. "Valaina, don't-" Kili started but stopped as Valaina turned toward him.

Her eyes were dark red, almost like dried blood. They held a lust for blood that the dwarves had never seen before. She stalked toward them, her need to put out her burning anger far too great. Where this monstrous Rage came from, Valaina did not know. "Valaina?" Ori asked terrified as the wolf's lips curled back in a snarl.

Valaina growled and snapped her jaws at them. She was about to spring when suddenly a small rock hit the back of her head, making her whip around to face the trolls. She charged again right into a waiting rope so thick and tough that she wouldn't have been able to chew through it anyway. "What is wrong with her?" Gloin asked as they watched a troll tie the very angry wolf to a tall tree stump that wouldn't let her go more than a few feet out.

"How am I supposed to know?" Thorin asked heatedly.

They, too, were shoved into sacks and tossed to the side as those that had been tossed into sacks before were tied to a large tree in there underclothes and placed over a roaring fire. "Oh! That's hot, that's hot, that's hot!" Nori yelled as Valaina continued to snarl at her confines, though she was starting to quiet down some.

"Don't bother cooking them! Let's just sit on them and squash them into jelly," Tom said, clearly the stupidest of the trolls.

"They should be sautéed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage," the troll disagreed.

"Is this really necessary?" Balin asked.

"That does sound quite nice," the troll agreed.

"Untie me, mister," Bombur said.

"Eat someone your own size!" yelled out Gloin.

"Never mind the seasoning," one troll said. "We ain't got all night. Dawn ain't far 'way. Let's get a mo'e on. I don't fancy bein' turned tuh stone."

"I think you look rather nice as stone," Valaina growled. "It'd make it easier for us to rip off your damn heads!"

"Shut up, stupid dog."

"Make me, you piece of shit!"

"Wait!" Bilbo yelled out. "You are making a terrible mistake."

"You can't reason with them. They're half-wits!" Dori cried.

"Half-wits? What does that make us?" Bofur asked as Bilbo began to stand up.

"Dwarf on a branch," Valaina growled as her Rage began to loosen its grip on her as she fought back.

"Oh look, she's back!" Ori cried.

"Back from where? I've been here the whole time, dumbass!"

"I meant with the seasoning," Bilbo said.

"What about the seasoning?" a troll asked.

"Well, have you smelt them? You're gonna need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up."

"Traitor!" Bombur yelled out.

Valaina managed to get a lid on most of her anger and was beginning to think clearly once more. She saw that Bilbo was trying to buy time, and both the dwarves and the trolls were falling for it. "What do you know about cooking dwarf?" a troll asked.

"Shut up!" one troll said to the other. "Let the, uh, flurgaburburhobbit talk."

"Flurga-what-a?" Valaina asked, her wolf head cocking to the side like a puppy.

"The secret to cooking dwarf is…" Bilbo stuttered.

"Yes? Come on. Tell us the secret."

"It's, uh…"

"Come on!"

"Yes, uh, I'm telling you. The secret is to skin them first," Bilbo said finally.

"What? Skin us?" Nori yelled out.

The other dwarves were yelling at Bilbo as well, even Thorin. Valaina put a paw over her face, a chocking-strangling noise coming from her in what was a laugh though no one heard it. "That's the best you can do, Bilbo?" she yelled. "Skin them?"

"Tom, get me felleting knife."

"I'll skin you, you little-!" Gloin was yelling.

"I won't forget that. I won't forget it," Dwalin said as he pointed at Bilbo with a barely free hand.

"Wha' a load of wubbish," the troll turning the dwarves said. "I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scarf them, I say, boots and all."

"Well, if you would listen to me," Valaina growled, "eating dwarves is what makes you turn to stone at dawn. Proven fact."

"Shut up, puppy!" Tom yelled. "He's right. Nothing wrong with a bit of raw dwarf."

"I tried," Valaina said hopelessly as she sat back on her haunches.

Tom picked up Bombur and was about to eat him. "Nice and crunchy," Tom went on.

"Oh, not that one. He's infected!" Bilbo yelled out.

"Huh?!" Tom said pausing a fearful look on his face.

"You wha'?" another troll asked.

"Yeah, he's got worms in his…tubes," Bilbo said with a face.

"Eww!" Tom yelled out as he dropped Bombur.

Bombur cried out as he fell right onto Kili and Oin who made a groaning sound from the extra fallen weight.

"In fact, they all have. They're infested with parasites. It's a terrible business. I wouldn't risk it. I really wouldn't," Bilbo said with another face.

"Parasites? Did he say 'parasites'?" Oin asked.

"We don't have parasites. You have parasites!" Kili yelled angrily as Bilbo sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Good come back, really good!" Valaina yelled. "You couldn't have thought of anything better?"

"At least you aren't tied in a sack," Fili yelled at her.

"No," she growled, "I'm tied to tree."

Thorin must have caught on for he looked like he finally knew the plan. "What are you talking about, laddie?" Oin continued.

Thorin kicked Kili as hard as he could in his position making Kili grunt as a painful jab went through his back. They looked at Thorin who looked like he was zoning out and then back at Bilbo. "I've got…parasites as big as my arm!" Oin tried.

"Mine are the biggest parasites! I've got huge parasites!" Kili yelled out desperately, and Valaina was sure she heard his voice crack a bit.

The dwarves began to yell about their parasites to the trolls as Valaina made another strangled chocking noise as her laughter increased. "We're riddled," Kili kept at it.

"Yes, I'm riddled!" Oin joined in.

"Yes, we are, badly," added Doir.

"What would you have us do, then?" a troll asked.

"Well…" Bilbo began to respond.

"You think I don't know what you're up to? This little ferret is taking us for fools."

"Ferret?" asked Bilbo offended.

"Fools?" another troll asked.

"The dawn will take you all!" a familiar wizard yelled out as he appeared on top of a large rock.

"Who's that?" asked William.

"No idea," answered another.

"Can we eat 'im too?" Tom asked.

"Gandalf? Nah, he'd be too old and crunchy for you," Valaina said with a smirk. "Like moldy meat."

Valaina saw the sun just barely above Gandalf as he brought his staff up and down onto the rock, the rock splitting in half letting the light flow over the clearing. The trolls yelled and groaned as they began to turn to stone. They cried out and tried to huddle in on themselves but were too late and turned to stone. Bilbo stood with a frown as if he couldn't believe that just happened. The dwarves looked at Gandalf and began to laugh in amusement and gratitude, even Thorin smiled something he did less often than Valaina. "Get your foot out of my back," Dwalin yelled to a dwarf.

"Get your back out of my foot!" the dwarf answered.

"Dwarves," muttered Gandalf.

"On a branch," Valaina finished for the wizard.


	8. Chapter 8: The Hidden Valley

Chapter 8: The Hidden Valley

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**A/N: I don't have much to say except that this story is going****_ way to fast!_**** In Word I'm already on chapter 12...well, enjoy...**

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** XxKicking your AxX: **Thanks :) It literally popped into my mind and I was like omg, she would say that!

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It took a while to get the dwarves out of their bindings against the log. Once they did so, they quickly put all their armor, weapons and whatnot back on. Gandalf thought it was funny that Valaina was tied to a tree so he left her there until all the dwarves were out, and still went on ignoring her when Thorin came back from helping another dwarf out. "Where'd you go to? If I may ask," Thorin said to Gandalf as he walked up to the wizard.

"To look ahead," stated Gandalf simply.

"What brought you back?"

"Looking behind. Nasty business. Still, though, they are all in one piece."

"No thanks to your burglar."

"He had the nous to play for time. None of the rest of you thought of that. They must have come down from the Ettenmoors."

"Since when do mountain trolls venture this far south?"

"Oh. Not for an Age. Not since a darker power ruled these lands. They could not have moved in daylight."

"There must be a cave nearby."

"No, it's okay," Valaina growled as she pulled against the rope once more. "I'll just stay here tied to a tree."

Gandalf gave a small chuckle. "Kili, Fili, Gloin, help her out," Gandalf told the dwarves.

They made quick work of the rope just like they did with the rope that had bound the other dwarves to the spittle. After the final rope was cut, Valaina was free. She shifted back and stood with a hand on her knee and the other at her throat. "Why didn't you just shift and get out of it?" Gandalf asked.

"If you haven't guessed," Valaina growled as she stood up, her hand still gingerly around her throat, "I have been fighting myself."

Gandalf saw her dark red eyes, less dark than before but still dark nonetheless. "Valaina, you have some explaining to do," Thorin rumbled as he walked up to the the elleth with the other eight dwarves behind him.

"What's wrong with your neck?" Ori asked.

Valaina dropped her hand and she heard a quick inhale of breath from Gandalf. "It's not that bad," she mumbled.

Her neck had been rubbed raw from the rough rope she had been struggling against. It was scrapped up and bleeding at some points, and a large bruise was forming along the sides. "For the Valar's sake, Valaina, what was wrong with you?" Gandalf said as he moved to inspect the elleth's neck.

Valaina growled and slapped Gandalf's hand away. "It will heal," she said in a short manner.

"You are still not in control of yourself."

"Really? And what makes you say that?"

"You're short temper."

Valaina gave a snort as she crossed her arms. "I always have a short temper."

"Thorin, as a lycan Valaina feels this extreme Rage at some points when she gets too emotional so to speak. It is hard for her to control, and you best not be the ones to make her angry lest she turns on you and tries to kill you," Gandalf explained.

"She already tried once," he said. "When we had to surrender or the hobbit would be nothing more than a pile of limbs at this moment."

"Ah," Gandalf said as if that explained everything. "She hates giving up."

"We can tell," Thorin said with a less than pleased look.

"Are we going to this cave troll or not?" Dwalin asked impatiently.

"I didn't know you liked troll caves," Valaina said.

"I don't."

Valaina gave a "really" face and walked off to find Isil.

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They began to move through the woods, after having packed up the ponies once more. Isil was very upset that Valaina had left her to her own devices for the time being. They followed the trail up to a mountain side, the smell of troll getting stronger and stronger. Valaina had buried her face into her hands as they got closer, the dwarves just beginning to smell it. "What in the hell is that gods awful smell?" she called out.

"That'd be the troll cave, and we must be getting closer because I am beginning to smell it as well," Gandalf answered.

Valaina spotted the entrance first, thanks to her elf eyes. "Who wants to volunteer to go into that foul place?" she said. "Cause there is no way in hell I'm going in there."

"I agree with Valaina," Kili said. "I'm staying out of that stink hole."

They had stopped and were dismounting the horses; Valaina looked at Isil once and then to the other ponies, wondering who would watch them this time. "Ori, watch the ponies," Thorin called. "Gloin, Nori, Dwalin, Bofur, come with me."

"Guess that leaves the rest of us out," Fili said with a happy tone.

Valaina sat against a rock with a hand gingerly on her neck. She began to doze off one someone stopped in front of her. "Hey, so, um…" they started.

Valaina opened one eye and peered up at Balin, the older dwarf smiling down at her. "I must admit, your skills with a blade had impressed me, and I am glad that you are on our side," Balin said.

"Thank you, Master Balin. That means a lot," Valaina said with a tiny smile.

"Your neck is looking better."

"That's because I am resting; regaining my strength from what that Rage took from me."

"I'll leave you be, then."

By the time Gandalf and the rest of the dwarves that went into the troll-hoard came out, Valaina's neck had all but healed itself being a more minor injury. She was standing up and stretching when a crashing noise sounded out from the forest they were in. "Something's coming!" Thorin yelled out.

"Stay together!" Gandalf yelled. "Hurry now! Arm yourselves!"

They rushed down into the clearing to intercept whatever was coming. Valaina growled, her dual blades out and twirling at the ready, when a bunch of large rabbits pulling a sled burst from the undergrowth. "Thieves! Fire! Murder!" the person at the head of the sled yelled.

Radagast the Brown stopped in the middle of the parted dwarves, his crazy Wildman look making him look like the punch line of a joke. "Radagast," Gandalf said in relief as everyone sheathed their weapons. "It's Radagast the Brown. Well, what on earth are you doing here?"

"I was looking or you, Gandalf," the wizard said short breaths. "Something's wrong. Something's terrible wrong."

"With his mind," Kili said to Fili. "He's got bird poop on the side of his head."

"He's odd, yes," Valaina said in the wizard's defense, "but he can still turn you into a squirrel if he feels like it."

"That's threatening."

"Yes?" Gandalf asked expectantly.

Radagast was about to say something when he looked like he forgot. "Oh! Just give me a minute. Oh! I had a thought and now I lost it. It was right there on the tip of my tongue. Oh. It's not a thought at all. It's a silly little," Gandalf pulled a stick bug from Radagast's tongue and dropped it into the wizard's hand, "stick insect."

"I would not like that thing in my mouth," Valaina mumbled.

"Nor would I have bird poop on the side of my face," Kili agreed.

"Not even the gold of Erebor could get me to do that," added Fili.

The dwarves dispersed and found posts on the rocks in the small forest as the two wizards talked in quite, though Valaina still heard them with her elf ears. "The Greenwood is sick," Radagast said. "A darkness has fallen over it. Nothing grows any more. At least nothing good. The air is foul with decay. But the worse are the webs."

"Webs? What do you mean?" Gandalf asked.

"Spiders, Gandalf. Giant ones. Some kind of spawn of Ungoliant, or I am not a wizard. I followed their trail. They came from Dol Guldur."

"Huh? Dol Guldur? But the old fortress is abandoned."

"No, Gandalf. 'Tis not. A dark power dwells in there such as I have never felt before. It is the shadow of an ancient horror. One that can summon the spirits of the dead. I saw him, Gandalf. From out of the darkness a Necromancer has come."

The wizard fell into his memory, and was suddenly pulled back in gasps. "A Necromancer?" Valaina asked to no one. "Why the hell would someone want to learn how to summon the dead? That's just creepy."

"Sorry," Radagast said to Gandalf.

"Try a little Old Toby. It will help settle your nerves," Gandalf said and Radagast took a drag of Gandalf's pipe. "And out."

The wizard let the smoke out of his nose and calmed down significantly. "Now, a Necromancer. Are you sure?" Gandalf asked.

Radagast pulled a wrapped up package from his robes that suspiciously look like a sword. "That is not from the world of the living," Radagast said.

A loud snarl from Valaina brought Gandalf's attention to the elleth. She held her head in her hands as she was fighting an anger within her as Gandalf put the sword away quickly. "She's affected by it," he said. "That is a sure sign you are right, Radagast."

The sound of a large animal growling reached the company's ears. "Valaina?" Gandalf questioned as Radagast gasped.

Valaina put her hands up in defense. "That wasn't me that time," she said.

"Was that a wolf? Are there wolves out there?" Bilbo asked.

"Yes, one is right here," Valaina said coming near to him.

"Other than you," he said with a glare.

"Wolves? No, that is not a wolf," Bofur said.

A growling sound came again and they looked to Valaina who then let out a growl herself. She ran forward and shifted. "Look out!" she yelled as a lone warg jumped at the dwarves.

"Kili! Get your bow!" yelled out Thorin as he unsheathed his sword.

She jumped too and intercepted it, grabbing the warg's throat and twisting to land down in front of Thorin who stabbed its heart. Another warg came rushing down the path behind Thorin, and before Valaina could react, Kili shot the warg in the head with an arrow, the beast falling in front of Dwalin who bashed its head in with his war hammer. "Warg scouts," Thorin yelled. "Which means an orc pack is not far behind."

"Orc pack?" Bilbo asked as Valaina shifted.

"Who did you tell of your quest beyond your kin?" Gandalf asked angrily.

"No one."

"Who did you tell?!"

"No one, I swear. What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You are being hunted!"

"That means fighting," Valaina said enthusiastically whish earned her a few odd looks.

"We have to get out of here," Dwalin said.

"We can't. We have no ponies," Ori said. "They bolted."

"You're worse than Kili and Fili," Valaina commented.

"Hey!" said the brothers in unison.

As if to prove Ori wrong, Isil ran up and over the ridge to Valaina, a loud snort coming from her saying she was ready to fight. "Isil and I can draw them off," Valaina said as she began to mount.

"No, Valaina. Stick with us. We may just need you," Gandalf said.

"Then I will draw them off," said Radagast with a smile.

"These are Gundabad Wargs. They will outrun you," argued Gandalf.

"These are Rhosgobel rabbits. I'd like to see them try."

Radagast jumped onto the sled and the rabbits took off as Valaina tightened up the stirrups so they wouldn't be bouncing against Isil's sides. She quickly removed the halter as well and stashed it in a saddle bag. "Run," she whispered in Isil's ear, "run to Rivendell. Do not stop. Be safe, mellon nim."

The mare gave a nicker and gently nudged Valaina before stepping back, rearing, and taking off faster than any of the dwarves, and even Gandalf, expected the mare to run at. "That's the desert blood in her," Valaina explained. "She can run like that for hours. Those wargs will never catch her."

"Unless she falls and becomes lame, of course," Bofur said and Bifur whacked him upside the head.

"Shut up, Bofur," he said in a reprimanding voice.

They made their way out of the forest and onto the rocky plains, Radagast drawing the orc pack away from them. "Come on," Gandalf said as he led the way.

Valaina followed from the rear, making sure none of the dwarves fell behind as they ran from cover to cover. They switched directions as Radagast led the wargs across a rise close to them. "Stay together! Move!" Gandalf said.

"Damn it, Radagast!" Valaina said as they turned a different way yet again.

They ran across the planes again and changed direction once more. "Where are you leading us?" Valaina heard Thorin ask Gandalf.

_To Rivendell, _she said in her mind but not aloud.

Suddenly, they found themselves against a large boulder, a warg extremely close to them. Thorin looked to his left where Kili stood, bow in his hands. Valaina was crouching down to stay low to the ground or she would give them away. Thorin gave a nod to Kili who took a deep breath, gave a cocky smile to his brother as he pulled an arrow out, and jumped away from the rock. Valaina prepared herself to attack if the warg got to close, not caring if the dwarves could fight them off without her help. The warg spotted Kili immediately, and the dwarf shot the arrow into the warg's shoulder. It snapped its head around, trying to pick the arrow out when Kili shot it again in the other shoulder making the beast tumble off the side. Dwalin and two other dwarves quickly made work of the loud screeching made by the two beasts. "Um," Valaina started, "our position may just have been given away."

The howl of the wargs reached their ears signaling they had been found. "Move!" Gandalf yelled. "Run!"

"No need to tell us twice," Fili said.

They came upon an expanse of golden plains with coniferous trees dotted here and there with the occasional cluster of large boulders as well as the mountains in the background grew closer and larger. The wargs' growling and barking grew louder as they closed the distance. "There they are!" Gloin yelled.

.

"This way! Quickly!" yelled Gandalf

They ran again, Valaina starting to get sick and tired out running when they could be fighting. Thorin stopped, a gasp sounding from him as he spotted two wargs and an orc on a rise. Kili ran back toward them. "There's more coming!" he yelled.

"Kili! Shoot them!" called Thorin.

"We're surrounded!" Fili yelled.

"Thanks for stating the obvious!" Valaina yelled back at him, not drawing her blades.

Kili began to shoot, his aim quite accurate now. "Where's Gandalf?" asked Dori.

"He's abandoned us!" growled Dwalin.

"By the Valor, he hasn't!" Valaina yelled back. "He's doing what Gandalf does and that is finding a way out of this mess, dumbass!"

Ori shot at a warg with his slingshot, but the little stone did nothing, and the poor young dwarf seemed even more frightened. "Hold your ground!" Thorin called out as he unsheathed his blade.

"I'll buy you some time!" Valaina yelled.

Valaina shifted and howled, the wargs seeming surprised at the sudden appearance of a large white wolf. She snarled and charged the closest warg, three coming at her. "Valaina, what are you doing!" Ori yelled out.

Valaina snarled at the wargs as they grew closer, her ears laying flat against her skull and her lips curled back in a snarl. Two that were coming at her from the side jumped, and Valaina ducked, the two wargs crashing head first into each other with loud yelps. Valaina surged into the air, jaws open to show her rows of sharp, white teeth as she descended on the third warg. It began to turn tail and run, but not before Valaina snapped its neck. She turned to the other two and grabbed one by the underside of its neck and threw it far, the warg's blood dripping through the sky as it bled out. The third warg dazedly charged at her, and Valaina sidestepped, tripping the warg up before tearing out its throat. She didn't noticed the other two running up from behind her until she went down underneath the weight of one of the wargs. She let out a yelp of surprise before the two disappeared in a flurry of brown and white fur. Valaina came out victorious, spitting out the long ear of the weakened warg. She let it run off, the missing ear of the other warg becoming its downfall for many blood vessels lay in one's ear and if not treated right it could be a potential bleed out spot.

Valaina turned to the next warg and clamped her jaws shut on its head, crushing its skull with great difficulty. She let the dead animal fall. "Not doing that again," she mumbled as her jaws ached slightly.

"This way, you fools!" Gandalf cried from the group of rocks.

"Took you long enough," Valaina called out.

"Come on, move! Quickly, all of you! Go! Go! Go!" Thorin yelled from his position on top of a rock that led to the secret passage.

Valaina held off several other wargs as the dwarves began to disappear. She spotted two running at Thorin. He easily cut down one, but Valaina got to the second before the dwarf could. She grabbed hold of the warg and threw it as hard as she could against the stone, hearing a satisfying crunch when it broke its back. Kili shot another orc right between the eyes. "Kili! Run!" Thorin yelled to his nephew.

"I'm already going!" he answered.

Valaina caught sight of a warg heading straight for the dwarf. With a growl she lunged forward and bowled the warg over going down with it as her paws got tangled in the large warg, but allowing Kili to escape. Fili and Thorin disappeared into the gap, but Kili and Valaina remained outside. The wargs were closing in faster than Valaina had expected as she jumped to her feet, so she picked up Kili gently in her jaws and raced forward. She skid to a halt and gently dropped the dwarf down the smooth rock decline. "Valaina, come on," Thorin yelled to the lycan.

The elleth pulled her wolf head back and turned, a mace hitting her in the side. She let out a yelp of surprise before all the company heard was the growling and mad barking of dogs. Then an elven horn sounded and the wargs screeched. Valaina shifted and slid down into the hidden passage, unseen by the elves. Instead of landing gracefully on her feet as she expected too, she tripped up, staggered, and fell, rolling onto her shoulder slightly before popping up and skidding on her feet backward only to fall on her back, sliding a good foot or so to a stop. "That was," she started and coughed as she began to pick herself up, "graceful."

"Not so much," added Fili with a hint of a smile. "But it was an attempt."

"A pretty poor attempt."

The sound of orcs and wargs being slain reached the company's ears when all of the sudden a clearly dead orc fell down into their hiding spot. Gandalf poked it just in case as Thorin took out a shattered arrow and examined it. "Elves," he said in distaste.

Some of the dwarves have expected a witty, snarky reply from Valaina, but she didn't give any. "I cannot see where the pathway leads," Dwalin yelled to them. "Do we follow it or no?"

"Follow it, of course," Bofur said a little too enthusiastically.

"I think that would be wise," laughed Gandalf.

"Come now, brother," Gloin said to his brother, though Valaina didn't think he needed to.

They began to follow the pathway with Dwalin in the lead. Valaina took up the rear right behind Kili and Fili. "Are you alright?" Kili asked as Valaina stopped a moment, a look of pain on her face as she steadied herself against the wall.

"Yeah," she said in a strained voice and swallowed nervously, "I'm fine."

"That's very convincing…" he trailed off.

"You're bleeding," Fili said abruptly.

Valaina sneered. "Really? I think I noticed."

"You're bleeding _a lot_," the dwarf corrected himself.

"I'll be fine. It's just a scratch," Valaina said as she straightened herself up, a mask of fake calm appearing on her face.

"Thanks for buying us time out there," the blonde dwarf said suddenly, making both Valaina and Kili stop in their tracks.

"You're welcome," Valaina said awkwardly.

Fili gave a nod. "And thanks for making sure my brother made it back in one piece," he said as he pulled his brother into a head lock and ruffled up his hair. "Don't know what I would do without him."

Valaina gave them a small smile before they started back up again. Soon, they were out of the passage and on a space in the cliff that lead to another path. The sight of a glorious elven city stole the breath of everyone except for, of course, Thorin and Balin. The slowly setting sun lit up the city of Rivendell in a beautiful light. "The Valley of Imladris," Gandalf said as he and Valaina emerged from the passage. "In the common tongue it is known by another name."

"Rivendell," Bilbo said.

"Home of the elves," Valaina said as she took in the sight. "And not all are friendly, mind you."

"Here lies the Last Homely House East of the Sea."

"This was your plan all along. To seek refuge with our enemy," Thorin said.

"Hey!" Valaina protested. "Last I looked I was on your side."

"Valaina is right. You have no enemies here, Thorin Oakenshield. The only ill will to be found in this valley is that which you bring yourself," Gandalf said.

"You think the elves will give our quest their blessing? They will try to stop us," Thorin went on.

"That depends on how you present your quest to them," added Valaina.

"Of course they will. But we have questions that need to be answered. If we are to be this will need to be handled with tact, and resect, and no small degree of charm. Which is why you will leave the talking to me," Gandalf said.

"Oh, I thought you were talking about me," Valaina said with hurt.

"You'd be the _last _person that shows respect when needed most," said Gandalf with a roll of his eyes.

"Wait a second! I…" she began to trail off as she realized Gandalf was right. "Never mind, then."

He lead them down the rocky, and very obviously less traveled path down to the open bridge that spanned across the waterfall and drop, Valaina choosing to walk at the front with Gandalf, a slight limp in her steps that seemed to become increasingly obvious. "She's limping," Bofur said to Ori.

"And she's bleeding," Dori added.

"Do you think she knows?" asked Ori.

"Of course," Kili threw in.

"She's just too stubborn to stop and dress her wounds," Gloin explained. "Her pride won't let her do so."

Thorin looked back at the five dwarves, then to the elleth and back again. "She's almost as stubborn as a dwarf," he commented to them.

"Uncle," Kili began with a sigh, "she is."

"And she's not about to change just because we are entering the land of the elves," threw in Fili.

"Did you expect her to?" Thorin asked.

The two brothers look at each other and then back to their uncle. "No," they said in unison.

"I didn't think so."

They finally came to stop in a circular courtyard, two elves looking at them from the stairs. The dwarves shifted nervously as they stopped. A third elf with brown hair that reached just past his shoulders and a circlet upon his head walked down the steps and greeted Gandalf. "Mithrandir," he said.

"Ah. Lindir," Gandalf responded.

"_Ama irailmw aey nymelalaaw elane anira elilccaa _(We heard you crossed into the valley)," Lindir said and then spotted Valaina and a hint of discontent showed in his eyes that did not go unnoticed by a few of the sharper dwarves and, of course, Gandalf. "_Amirilan fmelvla aey filnyn lae laeel, Valaina _(What brings you back so soon, Valaina)?"

"That's none of your business, Lindir," Valaina growled slightly.

"When Elrond is out it is my business to ask questions of those who enter Rivendell."

"Then you best keep your nose out of my business," the elleth sneered. "Unless you wish me to break it again."

"You're hurt," Lindir said, his voice laced with hidden anger.

"I am aware of that."

"The healers-"

"I don't need the healers," she snapped.

"Valaina, control yourself, would you?" Gandalf said with a shake of his head. "I must speak with Lord Elrond."

"My Lord Elrond is not here," Lindir said to Gandalf.

"Not here? Where is he?"

"Not here," Valaina repeated as she crossed her arms over her chest wincing as she did so.

At that moment a horn sounded, and elves riding horses came at them. Gandalf frowned as he pulled Valaina out of the way and back to the steps. One group circled the dwarves one way, and the rest the other. All the horses had a variant of a gray or white coat except for the one horse Elrond rode. "Gandalf," Elrond said.

"Lord Elrond. _Mellon nim, manke cael llie faal _(My friend, where have you been)?"

"_Ama amama irylanelv il tyilnyn eo emnyla anirilan nyilsa omes anira laeyanir. Ama lacaam il lysfam lailm anira Irewwal Tyilanir _(We were hunting a pack of orcs that came from the south. We slew a number near the Hidden Path)," Elrond said as he dismounted and handed the reins to another elf. "Strange for orcs to come so close to our borders. Something, or someone, has drawn them near."

"Ah, that may have been us."

"Yes, let's ignore the other elf here," Valaina grumbled.

"She's less welcomed than us," commented Dwalin to Balin.

"I can see that," his brother replied.

Elrond still ignored Valaina, much to the elleth's distaste, and moved to Thorin. "Welcome, Thorin, son of Thrain."

"I do not believe we have met," the dwarf said in hard controlled calm politeness.

"You have your grandfather's bearing. I knew Thror when he ruled under the mountain."

"Indeed? He made no mention of you."

"And Gandalf said _I _wasn't respectful," the elleth grumbled again, then thought about it for a second. "Never mind, he's still right."

Elrond spoke in elvish to the dwarves, making them mad as he offered them food in a language they didn't understand. "What is he saying?" Gloin rumbled. "Does he offer us insult?"

"No, Master Gloin, he's offering you food," Gandalf said impatiently.

"Well, in that case, lead on."

Before any of them could move, Valaina was standing in Elrond's way. "Valaina, it is good to see you," Elrond said in a less than pleased voice.

"Did Isil make it?" Valaina asked heatedly.

"Hello to you too," Elrond said under his breath. "The black desert mare? She's in the stables."

Valaina turned and began to walk off until two guards turned her around and brought her back to Gandalf and Elrond. "You can see her later. She is resting now," Elrond said.

"She's _my _mare, not yours," came the reply.

"She traveled far at such a great speed and for so long as well. She needs to rest, and you need to see to your wounds."

"They are just cuts. Nothing more."

"Really? Is that why your clothes have turned a dark red?"

"No."

"How about your eyes?"

"My eyes? What the…oh…" Valaina's sarcastic reply died on her lips as she realized with horror that her red eyes were visible for all the elves in Rivendell to see.


	9. Chapter 9: Running into a Friend

Chapter 9: Running into a Friend

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**A/N: Here we are at Rivendell. Now, this is where I will be deviating from the movie verse a bit. In the book, the company spends around fourteen days at Rivendell to wait and read the map. I will be adding in a few fillers and a bit of my own work to the story line here (if you know what I mean with that XD). **

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** Seriya Silvermist (Ch. 7): **I loved that scene too. And no problem at all! Thank you for still reviewing :) And lol at the stew! It probably tasted just as bad XD

** Seriya Silvermist (Ch. 8): **I remembered it and thought hey, she's in Rivendell...guess what's coming back XD And thanks. Yes, it is going fast, too fast for my own liking as well. And thank you for that *insert heart figure here (since it won't let me)*.

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A hand appeared in front of her bowed head, face in in her hand. "I retrieved it from the saddle bags. I did not know if you still wished to use it," Elrond said in a tone that said she should use it.

Valaina gave an agitated sigh as she took the white, light cloth binding from Elrond. She wrapped it around her eyes three times before tying it in the back. It was a gift from her dear friend Rygó, a werewolf she had grown up with after she was banished from her home. The cloth allowed the wearer to see through it as if it were glass, but not the other way around. It was of elven make, and embedded with magic to allow Valaina to see but still hide her eyes against prying eyes. She looked up once more, and caught an apologetic look from Gandalf. "One of these days, I won't have to hide my eyes," Valaina said in a tight voice.

"Come, you will join us for dinner, will you not?" Elrond asked.

"That depends on who is at it."

"Valaina, just follow Elrond," Gandalf said with a shake of his head.

"That doesn't answer my question, Gandalf," Valaina said.

They followed Gandalf and Elrond up the steps and into one of the many halls of Rivendell. "I'll see you to your temporary rooms as you all may want to clean up after the few skirmishes you have been through before we dine," Elrond said.

They were coming up to Valaina's own quarters, a courtesy of Arwen. Valaina caught sight of the double doors that opened into the room were wide open at the moment. The company stopped as Elrond and Gandalf did. "Nothing has been touched since you left," Elrond said as Valaina cautiously walked into the room.

Valaina caught sight of her bow and quiver, the red and black feather tipped arrows all still in the quiver. She picked up the bow and inspected the elven wood. "It's been repaired," she said astounded.

"Of course it has," Elrond said slightly hurt. "Maybe next time you won't use it as a shield against a blade."

"That was a split second decision," Valaina defended herself as she drew an arrow and placed it on the bow.

She turned toward Elrond and Gandalf, drew the string back, and shot the arrow right past them into the tree branch behind them. "Works like a charm," she smiled.

Gandalf had a furious look on his face. "Would you not do that?!" he asked in anger.

Valaina pointed at the arrow with the end of her bow. "It was nowhere near your head."\

The dwarves chuckled at the face Gandalf was making. "Reckless lycan," the wizard muttered as Valaina gave him a cocky smile.

"Come, before she gets any other ideas on where to shoot her arrows," Elrond said with amusement.

They made their way on through the hall leaving Valaina alone. She placed the bow and quiver on her bed before she retrieved her arrow with a sigh. She looked at the sunset before turning back to her room and shutting the door. She walked into her bathroom and found a bath had been prepared for her. As she stripped away her clothes painfully, she saw just how bad she was injured. Several large gashes rested over her torso, and her bare arms were scratched up pretty bad. She had a few cuts on her legs as well, but it was mainly her back and stomach that got the brunt of the injuries. She turned to the right and inhaled quickly. Her right side was severely torn up from the mace the one orc had wielded against her.

With a pained, and relieved, sigh, Valaina sank into her bath, slowly washing herself clean of dirt, grim, and blood. After a while, once she felt as clean as possible, she got out and dried off. She wrapped her towel around her body and made her way over to her to her dresser. Valaina pulled on her undergarments before she wrapped her wounds up in white bandages from a small drawer at the top of the dresser where she literally stock piled bandages. She would need to sneak into the infirmary and grab some more later that night. She would heal up tonight (thanks to her lycanthropy she healed while sleeping).

Valaina pulled her hair into a half up half down style, and made a braid on each side of her head which was pulled to the back of her head to keep her hair out of her eyes as well as look more "elven", according to Gandalf, before walking over to her dresser for her clothes. She bypassed the drawer that held a few gowns, grimacing as she touched the drawer slightly. She opened a drawer and pulled out a white undershirt which she slowly put on over her head, wincing as her wounds stung. She pulled a pair of dark grey, nearly black, trousers and pulled them on as well. Valaina turned to her small closet and was opening it when a knock sounded on the door. "It is open," Valaina yelled as she stuck her head into the closet, successfully hiding her unbound eyes from whoever might be at the door and looking for a top to go over her shirt.

"Valaina, where are you?" a familiar voice called as she heard the steps of two, possibly three, dwarves.

Valaina pulled her head out of the closet and she nailed it on the door she did not see, a small cut on her forehead. "Ow! Damn door," Valaina said as she held her forehead.

She moved to her dresser and took a small piece of bandage and held it to her forehead. "The door attacked me," she said at the questioning looks of Ori, Fili, and Kili. "It fights nasty."

"We can see that," Fili said.

"Let me guess, you got lost."

"Us? Lost? Pfsh!" Kili said as he crossed his arms and Valaina raised an eyebrow. "Okay, maybe we did."

"I'll show you in a minute," Valaina smiled as she disappeared into her closet once more.

"Watch out for the door," Ori warned Valaina.

"I got it!"

She found a short feminine, slight form fitting darkish grey tunic with a small V-neck; a new item in her closet for she had never seen it before. She pulled it on and tightened the small ties so it comfortably fit her. She also found a coal grey leather vest and quickly pulled that on as well, tying the ties in the front and feeling slightly more comfortable. She walked out of the closet, finishing the last tie as spotted her cleaned boots by her bed and sat down next to them. "So," Kili said as he walked around the room along with Fili and Ori, "this is what you were talking about when you said you had rooms here?"

"Yes," Valaina answered as pulled her boots on, "that is the balcony over there and it leads. If you walk around the side it will lead to my weapons room."

"Weapons room?" Fili answered excitedly.

"Mmhh. Come with me."

Valaina stood grabbing her bow and quiver before she made her way out onto her open balcony, the curtains tied back to the three pillars. The dwarves shared a look before following Valaina. They walked a good twelve feet to a tightly shut door to which Valaina pulled out a key. "Just in case," she explained as she opened three locks. "I'm very…protective of my weapons for a lack of better terms. Mainly the ones I use."

She opened the door and pulled the torch from the wall next to it. The four entered the small, square room, the dwarves' eyes wide open as they examined the weapons on the walls of the room. "Where did you get all of these?" Fili asked in awe.

"Through my travels," came the simple answer. "Most are gifts, and I don't often use them as they are not my specialty."

On the back wall was Valaina's usual weapons: her dual blades in their sheathes on the middle of the wall flanked by her twelve daggers, six on each side, her knife to the left of her daggers and her throwing knife belt to the right of the other set of daggers. A spot above her dual blades was devoid of a bow, and a quiver was missing from below her blades. On one wall was a series of different swords, both long and short, broad and two handed, double and single edged as well as a few curved swords. Fili picked up an older looking short, double edged blade of dwarven make. "Where did you get this one?" he asked.

"That," Valaina said as she returned her bow and quiver to their spots on the wall, "was one that I found in a troll-hoard. It is from the Second Age."

"It is in really good condition," Kili said as he moved by his brother to examine it.

"That blade took me a few weeks to clean and restore it. Careful it's-"

"Ow!"

"-sharp."

"I didn't think it was," Kili said as he stuck his finger in his mouth as it began to bleed from the cut.

"All of them are."

Ori was looking at the numerous amounts of daggers and knives on the other wall. "Some of these are curved," the young dwarf examined.

"Those four," Valaina pointed to four oddly curved knives with thick grips and a small pommel, "are from four different tribes of desert people."

"You've been to the deserts?"

"Only for a year. How do you think I got Isil?"

"This is a Haradrim blade!" Fili said as he picked up an elegant knife of Haradrim make.

"Surprisingly, I got that from saving a Haradrim's life. He gave me the blade as thanks before he left."

Ori then caught sight a few war hammers and battle axes. "Wow," came the shocked response.

Kili and Fili nodded their agreement. "You sure have a lot," said Fili.

Valaina gave a nod as she finished strapping on her dual blades and the three daggers that rested between the two blades. She placed her knife and another dagger on her belt but left her throwing knives. The three dwarves turned to the elleth as she pulled four daggers off the wall and place two in her right boot and two in her left. Valaina removed four more and placed two on each thigh before taking her knife and a ninth dagger and strapping it to her hip. "Well," Fili cleared his throat, "it is good to know that you have been well armed all this time. But is all that necessary for diner?"

"I don't like to go out unarmed and I have a reputation to hold," Valaina responded as they left the weapon's room and back into the bed room.

She grabbed her cloth for her eyes before they exited. "Why do you wear that here?" Ori asked as they made their way down the hall. "You don't cover your eyes with us."

"Gandalf told me that I wasn't allowed or I wouldn't have gained your trust. Or, well, most of your trust. I wear it here to keep my red eyes hidden from those who travel between kingdoms who may want to kill me. Most know don't bother me and just think I'm strange. It is also keep my eyes a secret. Most think they are scarred."

"Well, I trust you."

"I second that," Kili added.

Fili said nothing and both Kili and Ori jabbed him in the stomach with their elbows. "I trust you as well," the dwarf groaned.

Valaina shook her head in amusement. "Come, let's get to diner before Gandalf has a fit," she said as they began to walk through the many halls of Rivendell.

"How many elves do you know?" Ori asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I know a lot," Valaina said, "but I call few my friends."

"How many are your friends?"

"Around twelve, probably less," Valaina said after a moment's pause to count in her head.

"Are any of them more than friends to you?"

Valaina's small smile disappeared into a frown as she delved into her own thoughts. "You know," she started and looked to the dwarf, "I do not recall ever feeling anything stronger than friendship among my elven friends. Perhaps a few I could call my brothers and sisters, but that is it."

"You've never loved before?" Ori's eyes were wide in disbelief. "I thought elves always fell in love at a young age."

Valaina gave a small chuckle. "That depends on the elf."

"But you have never loved?" Fili stated rather than asked.

"No," Valaina answered with a slight frown. "Not that I can recall."

At that moment they rounded a corner, and Valaina, not watching where she was going, ran smack dab into another elf. They went down in a not so graceful manner with the three dwarves laughing. Valaina rolled onto her back away from the newcomer and got up, offering her hand to the fallen elf. "I'm sorry," she said as she held back a laugh, "I wasn't watching where-"

"Valaina?" the newcomer questioned as he took the elleth's hand and was hoisted to his feet.

Valaina's face broke out into a broad smile as she recognized the person she ran over. "Daeron," she said as she embraced him in a hug, the other elf returning it.

"I think she was lying when she said she never had any feelings other than friendship," Fili muttered to Kili.

"I agree with you on that," answered Kili.


	10. Chapter 10: Small Talk

Chapter 10: Small Talk

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***EDIT: I didn't know if I needed to add this in or not, but Daeron is pronounced Dare-en, and Eärlindë is pronounced Air-lihn-day. It kind of blew over my head when I started this. It's a little late, I know, but I didn't know if you all needed it or not so I'm just going to stop now and leave this here XD *slinks away in embarrassment***

**A/N: Have another chapter for the night ^_^**

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** C.G: **Your welcome :) I know a lot of people like fast updates, and I am so far ahead of what is posted it's not funny XD And thank you very much for reading and reviewing.

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Valaina pulled away from Daeron awkwardly as she remembered the three dwarves near her. She finally got a good look at the elf in front of her. His brown, shoulder length hair had two braids on the side that pulled back into a low ponytail. He had on a dull green tunic pulled over a white long sleeved shirt. At his side was his long sword in a plain leather sheath, and on his wrists were his vambraces. His dark brown trousers and boots looked like they were barely worn, but worn nonetheless. "Have you gone out of Rivendell lately?" Valaina asked in mock shock.

"What makes you say that?" he asked in a confused voice.

"You look like you actually did something for once."

"And what about you? What have you been up to of late? Not fighting your door again," he said as he gently touched Valaina's forehead near her cut quickly diminishing cut.

Valaina gave an embarrassed smile. "Maybe. It creeps up on me, okay?" suddenly, she remembered the dwarves. "Daeron, this is Kili, Ori, and Fili," she said as she introduced each one.

The dwarves gave a nod to the elf. "Daeron," he said with a small bow of his head though Valaina did not miss the glare he gave the dwarves quickly before smiling once more. "Are you and the other dwarves, a hobbit, and a wizard all going to dinner?"

"We were on our way when you ran into our friend," Ori said.

"I shall not delay you any longer than I have then. Good evening to you," Daeron said with a stiff bow to the dwarves before turning to Valaina. "Will you meet me in the courtyard later?"

"We'll see," she said with a small smile.

"Like old times?"

Valaina's smile fell off from her face completely. "Daeron," she sighed, "I have so much to tell you-"

"Please?" he asked with a hopeful smile, bright brown eyes pleading.

"Fine," she mumbled. "I'll meet you later this night."

"Until then," he said as he kissed Valaina's hand.

With one last glare to the dwarves, he was sure Valaina had not seen though she did, he walked away from them with all the grace of an elf and the look of a warrior. "I don't like him," Kili said, "and not just because he is an elf."

Valaina looked at the spot where her one of her closest and oldest friends had disappeared, a small smile lingering. "Let's go," she said halfheartedly.

They followed the elleth until they came to a large open courtyard that overlooked one of the many beautiful waterfalls. A long table had been set up for the dwarves and another had been placed closer to the edge for Gandalf, Elrond, and two others. Three elves were playing soft, beautiful music. Kili, Fili, and Ori quickly took up spots at the table. The dwarves were very upset at the fact that there wasn't any meat on the table, all green and organic food. Ori eyed a lettuce leaf with disgust. "Try it. Just a mouthful," Dori urged.

"I don't like green food," he said in an upset voice.

"Where's the meat?" Dwalin said quietly as he looked through the bowl of lettuce.

"Have they got any chips?" Ori asked again.

"Elves eat meat on occasions," Valaina said as she passed him. She paused and lowered her voice. "I'll bring some later."

Dwalin grabbed her arm gently as she passed. "Could you bring ale as well?" he asked hopefully.

Valaina removed the dwarf's hand from her arm and gave him a frown. "I will," she said after a few seconds, her frown gone.

"Kind of you to invite us," Gandalf was saying to Elrond as they entered. "Not really dressed for dinner."

"Well, you never are," Elrond responded and they both chuckled. "At least you are not like our dear Valaina here who brings her weapons to dinner."

"So?" Valaina responded. "There's no harm in being prepared to fight even in this safe haven."

Thorin looked over at her with his usual serious face. As he looked at Valaina, he couldn't help the small smile as the elleth looked like she was going to a battle more than to dinner. "Well," he said as he took up his seat across from Gandalf with Elrond at the head of the table, "we know now that she is not of noble blood."

"I could have told you that right away," she said.

"Valaina, please, sit," Elrond motioned to the four chair and Gandalf gave her a glare. "Or are you going to refuse that as well?"

"I am not all that hungry anyhow."

"I swear," Gandalf said with a shake of his head, "she will be the death of me."

"I certainly hope not," the elleth replied.

"Come, let us take a look at those swords, shall me?" Elrond said to divert the attention away from Valaina.

Thorin handed Elrond his sword first. "This here is Orcrist," Elrond said as he unsheathed the sword a bit, "the Goblin-cleaver. A famous blade. Forged by the High Elves of the West; my kin. May it serve you well."

He handed the blade back to Thorin who gave a nod of his head. "And this is _Glamdring_," Elrond said as he pulled out Gandalf's sword enough to examine it, "the Foehammer. Sword of the King of Gondolin. These were made for the Goblin Wars of the First Age. How did you come by these?"

"We found them in a Troll-hoard on the Great East Road," Gandalf replied as he took Glamdring back, "shortly before we were ambushed by orcs."

"And what were you doing on the Great East Road?"

"That, Elrond, is none of your business," Valaina said as she turned from the view.

"Valaina," Gandalf scoffed, "that is no way to treat our host."

"Oh please," said Valaina with a wave of her hand, "you were the one that said I am the least respectful person in the time that needs the most respect."

"Did I say that?"

"Our business is our own, and if you don't like it than that is too bad."

"Like I said," muttered Gandalf with a hand on his face, "she will be the death of me."

"It is not as if we are forbidden to be on that damn road anyhow."

"That is enough, Valaina!"

Lindir, who was standing behind Elrond at the present moment, was giving Valaina a look between outrage and astonishment. "If you will excuse me," she mumbled.

"You were never welcome," Valaina heard Lindir say.

The room seemed to become tense as Valaina stood stock still, debating on whether or not to kill the elf right then and there. A sigh of relief seemed to escape everyone when the elleth gave a snort and left. She walked through the halls until she came upon one of the few open courtyards, this one more secluded from the others and rarely visited. It looked out over one of the larger waterfalls and to the valley below. With a sigh, she leaned against the railing and removed her cloth over her eyes. The wind gently blew her hair back, and she closed her eyes to enjoy it. Soft arms wrapped around her waist, a head came to rest on her shoulder. "I've missed you," Daeron's voice whispered in her ear.

Valaina's eyes opened slowly, the sunset nearly gone and the moon was rising. "I've missed you as well," she mumbled. "Though, I am beginning to wonder if your meaning of 'missed' is different than what it used to be."

The arms dropped away from her waist and the weight on her shoulder left. Valaina stepped away from the rail to face Daeron. He took up a spot leaning slightly against the rail, a smile on his face. "Your eyes are still as pretty as they were when I first met you," he said quietly.

"A lot has changed, Daeron. You've finally matured for one."

Daeron moved closer to Valaina, yet she held a distance, the other elf's face becoming slightly hurt. "What? Do you not wish to be with me? Your oldest friend?" he asked.

"I wish to be with my oldest _friend_," the elleth emphasized the last word. "Key word there being _friend_."

Daeron still looked very much hurt. "What is with those…_dwarves_? Why are you traveling with _them_?"

"Because I can."

"That is not a reason."

"I want to."

"You actually _like _dwarves?"

"They are good company and friends, better than most _elves _would think," came the heated reply.

"And when they leave?" Daeron asked with venom.

Valaina fixed him with a cross look, her arms folded across her chest and her legs apart as if she was about to leap into a fight. "I will go with them, whether you like it or not," she nearly growled.

Daeron sighed and looked at Valaina. "You do not miss Rivendell much, do you?"

"No."

"Do you not miss the security that this place provides?"

"I don't miss it."

"What do you miss?"

"I miss the freedom I had when I wasn't trapped here," Valaina said as she looked out toward the valley. "I miss the fighting, the skirmishes. I miss adventure. I _want _adventure. That is why I am traveling with Thorin's company. I mean, there are more reasons deeper than just because they are journeying to a place that no one can go, but that is not for your ears."

"Not even if I beg you to tell me?" Daeron tried his best puppy eyes look.

"That stopped working on my a hundred years ago."

Valaina looked at Daeron and laughed, a true laugh, something she didn't do often. "You look like you've been kicked by a horse," she said.

Daeron joined in too after Valaina tried an impression and failed miserably at it. "How long will you be staying?" he asked after a few moments of silence.

"Until Thorin's company leaves."

"Nothing can stop you? Even if I beg?"

"No."

Daeron's arms wrapped around Valaina once more, his head on her shoulder again. "Please?" he whispered in her ear.

"No," came the stern reply.

"Valaina…"

His breath tickled her neck, and she was almost tempted to turn and give her friend a kiss to shut him up. _Almost_. Instead, she gently elbowed her way out of his grasp. "I will not stay," she said in a firm tone.

"Sometimes I wish you never left, Valaina," Daeron replied hotly. "Maybe you would have changed into something less stubborn and…angry."

"That's who I am, Daeron," came the venomous reply of the stung the elleth, "and if you can't see me for who I am, then just go."

"Until tomorrow then," he said shortly and left.

Valaina sighed as the last of Daeron's steps retreated away. She did not, however, miss the noises of the hidden dwarves that had been there the whole time in the bushes to the right of Valaina. "You can come out now," she said as she placed her arms on the rail and leaned on it in utter comfort.

"How'd you know we were there?" Fili asked.

"Please," Valaina smiled at the two brothers, "You two make so much noise I was surprised Daeron didn't hear you."

"I don't like him," stated Kili. "The way he kept looking at you like you were some trophy on his wall…"

"He's changed," said Valaina with a nod as she turned back to the valley, "and not all for the better."

Kili and Fili, the dwarf had grown closer to Valaina ever since she saved his brother, looked at the valley below. "Did you love him?" Fili asked suddenly.

Valaina was silent, lost in her thoughts. She remembered the time when she stayed at Rivendell and Arwen had gotten the lycan rooms of her own. Daeron had been beside himself with joy at the thought of Valaina staying in Rivendell permanently. They were close, both training together with their blades every day. They also learned out to fight on horseback with each other. As she thought about all the time she spent with Daeron, she couldn't help the small warm feeling she felt toward him. Yes, at one point she had begun to love him more than a friend. They had flirted with each other in the years she was at Rivendell, and Daeron was sure Valaina would stay with him. But, that year Rygó had been killed and Valaina left, leaving Daeron high and dry with a large hole in his heart. He had hope that the elleth with the scarlet eyes would return one day to him, and he would flirt with her like old times, and eventually court her as he had hoped to do one day. But now that she was back, he saw the physical change in the elleth and he wanted her more as a sort of "trophy", to show the other elves that Valaina was his and his alone and no one would change that.

"Yes, Fili, I had loved him at one point in time," she said after a few moments. "I had begun to fall in love with Daeron before the death of Rygó, another good friend of mine that had sort of took me in after I was banished from my home. But, my feelings toward Daeron now are no longer those I felt before. He is an old friend and nothing more."

"So, you lied to us earlier," said Kili.

"What?"

"Ori had asked you if you ever loved and you said no."

"Well, I'm sorry then," Valaina said with a slightly confused face.

"Thorin said we have to wait for the right moon to read the map," Fili started once more. "That won't be until at least two weeks."

Valaina groaned and put her forehead against the railing. "Why?" came her muffled voice. "Why _two weeks_? I'm not going to be able to keep from strangling a few elves here."

"That makes three of us," Fili added.

"No," Kili corrected his brother, "more like fourteen of us."

"That's right," Valaina said, her head popping up, "there's thirteen _dwarves_ and a _lycan_. This is going to be an interesting two weeks."

Fili and Kili shared a devious look before Valaina jumped up quite suddenly and began to walk away. "Where are you going?" Fili asked.

"I almost forgot to grab you guys your meat," she smiled, a coy smile. "And I also need more bandages for my stomach. That stupid mace tore up my side. You know how to get back to the guest rooms?"

"Yes, but-"

"I'll bring the food to you all there. Trust me, I'll have a lot along with two barrels of ale."

"You can do that?"

"Well, knowing Arwen has its perks!" Valaina called as she ran off to finish her small tasks.

She found three elves willing to help her bring the ale along with the meat to the living room that the guest rooms opened into. In the large, rounded room they sat small stools of a sort and in the middle was a fire pit big enough to roast several pieces of meat at a time. The barrels were placed to the sides and mugs were handed out along with plates and utensils. The elves left, slightly appalled by the dwarves' hunger for meat and ale. As the meat began to cook, Dwalin suddenly had an idea. "Valaina, you said you don't know how long you can go drinking straight up, right?" he asked deviously.

"Without passing out from dehydration you mean," she said.

"Whatever. How about we test this now?"

The dwarves gave an uproar of agreement and Valaina smiled. "Why not?" she said as she handed Fili her cup. "I don't see any harm in it."

There was harm in it alright. She began to feel a severe burning sensation in her throat at around forty-two drinks, and it felt as though all the water in her throat had been dried up, but on she drank up to fifty. She slammed her mug down and fell to her hands and knees, a hand at her throat. "Water…" she croaked out. "Damn it…"

In seconds, Kili was handing her a water. She sat back against a wall and chugged water almost as fast as she did her liquor. After ten cups, she stopped. "That…was terrible," Valaina said with a face. "I got to fifty though. New record."

"I'll drink to that, lass," Dwalin said as he and the other dwarves raised their cups. "Fifty!"

"Fifty!" they shouted and downed their mugs in a civilized manner for Valaina's sake.

"Fifty," she said as she raised her water to drank it down as well. "And never again."


	11. Chapter 11: Broken Bonds

Chapter 11: Broken Bonds

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***EDIT: Oh! And some useless information that I feel so proud about that I need to share, I learned how to french braid my hair! XD I have long, naturally blonde hair and it is a good six inches from being the longest it has ever been (which is just above my butt lol). So, I learned how to french braid last night after I ran my daily mile (which I have just started doing since my volleyball has ended). Just thought I'd share XD**

**s****A/N: Chapter for today. We are all caught up with the chapters. I have Chapter 12 ready to go! If you have any questions or ideas of what you would like to see in the next few chapters, please tell me so! If not, then I will have to send them on their way closer to the end :( **

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***EDIT*C.G: **Valaina will not stay quite for long XD As for Daeron...you'll see

**Seriya Silvermist (Ch. 9): **Lol yep.

** Seriya Silvermist (Ch. 10): **Thanks lol. I had to add some kind of romance in here XD It also adds to her reason why she doesn't want to give into her feelings for Legolas in _Scarlet Eyes_, and you will see why in this chapter. And I also agree with Kili, I don't like Daeron. He has "bad omen" written all over him, and I am glad you see him that way as well.

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Valaina awoke an hour before dawn, as usual, and got dressed along with strapping on her weapons and fitting her hair into a French braid once more. She made her way to the training yard of Rivendell, which was further down in the valley. Not a soul in sight moved as Valaina walked through the halls, save but one she expected to find. For the second time in two days, Valaina and Daeron ran right into each other and ended up on the ground, laughing. "Those corners," the elf said as he helped Valaina up onto her feet. "They can be almost as dangerous as your closet. Where are you off to at such an early time?"

"Training," Valaina said as Daeron guessed.

"Would you care to join me? You'd be a better opponent than a stupid dummy," Valaina added.

"I would love to."

"You look like you were heading that way as well."

"Well," Daeron started but then shook his head, "never mind. Come on!"

He grabbed Valaina's hand and swung her toward the training field, letting go as they ran through the halls like old time teenagers, at least in Daeron's memories he was a teenager and Valaina was still, well, twenty. They finally emerged on the training field and looked around. Dawn was just starting to wake up and begin her morning routine. Valaina unsheathed one blade first, her dominant hand being her right, and looked to Daeron. "I thought I was better than one blade," he whined as he took out his long sword.

"We'll see," Valaina smirked as she shifted her blade to face her forearm.

Daeron attacked first, his blade coming around in a vertical swing. Valaina responded in taking a step forward, blocking in an upward stroke before flicking her wrist and switching her blade to face away from her forearm into a horizontal slash. Daeron jumped back in time to avoid the tricky shot, his eyes showing he disliked the craftiness in Valaina's fighting. "What the hell was that?" he asked.

"A block and an attack," she responded with more of a question than a statement. "I thought we were sparring, not whining about how we spar."

Daeron glared at her before attacking once more. Valaina ducked and dodged the swipes, her blade her shield for the time being until she blocked one swing that sent a jarring motion up Daeron's arm. His sword almost fell from his hand as Valaina brought her own sword around in a quick flash. He blocked, barely, and stumbled as Valaina tripped him up. Her sword was pointe at Daeron's throat. "You seem to have lost your edge," she stated.

Daeron glared at her before he knocked the elleth's feet from underneath her, making her fall flat on her back. He rolled intending to end the fight there by pinning her to the ground, but Valaina was already on her feet with both blades out. "You want to fight dirty," he sneered, "then so be it."

* * *

"Where can we find a training yard around here?" Dwalin asked with a yawn. "I don't fancy spending my time around this place doing nothing like Bombur."

"Valaina said that it was down in the valley," Ori spoke up beside the burly dwarf.

"Do you think they have a shooting range down there? Because Kili needs to work on his aim," commented Fili.

"Hey! My aim is good," Kili protested.

Gloin rolled his eyes, "It could be better, laddie."

"I've never seen _you _shoot a bow, Gloin."

"Because I rely on my axes. Much easier to wield than a silly bow."

"I don't think I could stand being in the presence of _elves _all day," Dwalin said. "It will not suit me well. Come, let us find those training fields she mentioned the other day."

The five dwarves walked as quietly as they could out of the living room the bedrooms opened to and made their way down a few halls until they were utterly lost. "Excuse me," Ori said as an elf rounded the corner, "where can we find the training fields?"

"Go to the end of this hall, make a right, go down the stairs, and follow the sounds of the devil's spawn. _She _should be up and practicing already," the elf grumbled.

"Are you talking about Valaina?"

"That _she-elf _is not welcomed here by many, and even more so when she makes a _racket _before dawn has even begun to break the sky," the elf said before he moved on.

The dwarves said nothing as he led the way down toward the training fields. They did indeed hear the clashing of swords before long, and as they walked further along toward the sounds, the sight they were confronted with was far from what they expected.

* * *

Valaina blocked again, the blade nicking her arm. A crazed look had come into Daeron's eyes as he fought Valaina, one that she often saw in men during battle. She blocked and countered, taking advantage of the raised strike by kicking out her leg, her foot meeting Daeron's shin making the other elf stagger. Valaina took the pommel of her sword and drove it into the elf's stomach and sent him flying backward. They were both bruised and slightly bloodied as they had continued to fight each other more like a life and death situation. Daeron was on his feet once more, the wild look in his eyes growing wilder each time he got back onto his feet. "What is your problem?" Valaina asked in annoyance. "It is not as if we are trying to kill each other!"

"You just had leave me here!" Daeron shouted angry. "You didn't say good-bye when you left."

"What are you-"

"You just picked up and _left_!"

"Is this what this is all about?" Valaina said in angry as well. "I left because I had to. You wouldn't have understood, and I wasn't about to ask you to come with me."

"I would have gone with you!" he said as he closed the distance to the length of his sword, his voice becoming softer. "I would have gone to the end of the earth with you."

"I left because it was something I needed to do," came the slightly gentle reply, "something I needed to do _alone_."

"Why?" Daeron asked and Valaina could hear the pain in his voice, and it nearly broke her. "Why do you have leave everyone behind and bear the pain all on your own?"

"It isn't something others can bear with me."

"Stay," he said in short. "Stay with me here in Rivendell. You will never have to do anything alone if you stay with me."

"Daeron-"

"Please," he said as he gently moved a few strands of hair from Valaina's face, "stay with me."

Valaina's red eyes flared dangerously as her thoughts swirled. She looked at the brown eyes of her oldest friend, and what she saw in them was not what she once saw a long time ago. Where there was once love was now lust and hunger, and for what Valaina didn't know. Though his eyes were soft, she could see the underlying message. They held the dead love of the elf in front of her. He loved Valaina yet she did not see it, and when she left Daeron, she left behind a broken heart that could never be healed. It was a scarred heart with nothing more than pitiful hope that he could still convince the scarlet eyed elleth to love him. Now, he wanted Valaina not out of love, but out of hunger to call her his own, to show those around him the she was his and his alone.

"I will not stay. Not for Arwen, not for her brothers, not for my friends," Valaina paused as a single tear slid down her cheek as she knew she was reopening the scars of that broken heart in front of her, "and not for you."

"Valaina," Daeron said in a weak voice, "I love you. Please, stay with me. I can't watch you run off again."

"Then don't," she snapped. "I am not welcomed here and you know it. I don't belong here. I belong out in Middle-Earth on adventures, quests. I belong in battle, in fights. That is where I belong and where I will go."

"You don't love me," he said as his anger slowly rose. "You never have."

"Once a long time ago I may have, Daeron, but not anymore."

"You're right…" Valaina took a step back as she saw the anger and hurt flash into Daeron's eyes. "You don't belong here."

"Daeron," she stated his name as his sword rose up threateningly.

"You broke my heart twice," he snapped. "I'm only going to do return the favor."

"Do not give into the darkness, Daeron," she said in fright as she watched his eyes darken slightly, thoughts of killing the elleth in front of him beginning to contort his mind.

He attacked her with such strength and ferocity that caught Valaina off guard. She brought up her left blade quickly in defense, and impact jarring Valaina's arm painfully. She watched as a thin line appeared on the blade. She barely had time to block again as Daeron attacked her once more. A large gash opened on her arm as she stumbled back. She tried to regain her footing, but the blade came around again. She twisted to try and avoid the sword, but Daeron flicked his wrist and the blade lashed across Valaina's back, a large gash from her right shoulder to her left hip. Valaina, stunned by the ferocity in Daeron's attacks, stumbled over herself and fell. She was on one knee when she saw his blades coming down at her and rolled to the side, another cut opening along the front of her left arm. She popped back up and crossed her blades over her head as Daeron's sword came crashing down toward her head. The force shook Valaina's body, and she barely held the elf's blade back with her own two crossed over in an "X".

Sudden anger flared in Valaina as her shock disappeared. She pushed the sword back, sending Daeron reeling behind him as he stumbled. She wasted no time in attacking, thin cracks appearing on her sword after each deafening blow. Daeron swung his sword and Valaina used her left to block. The impact shattered Valaina's blade, Daeron's own continuing and slicing across Valaina's stomach. The elleth jumped away holding the hilt and what was left of a shattered blade. She tossed it down and attacked with her remaining blade in her right hand, all feeling of friendship toward Daeron completely gone as she now attacked in the means to kill him.

* * *

The dwarves watched as Valaina's blade shattered, the elleth tossing the rest of the blade and hilt away from her as she attacked with her remaining blade. "Elvish blades do not break," Dwalin said in a hushed silence.

"That look in her eye," Fili added, "it's the same as when she nearly attacked Kili when we were cornered by the trolls."

"She's going to kill him," Ori spoke up silently.

Just then, they heard another long clang and the shattering of a sword. Valaina's second, remaining blade had been broken. "Valaina, stop!" came two voices at the same time.

The dwarves watched as two elves with grey eyes and dark hair raced out toward the lycan as she tossed away the remainder of the sword in her hand. The two looked as if they had come back from traveling, and the dwarves could not see any difference in the two elves. They shouted in elvish to two other elves who had run with them at the sounds of Valaina and Daeron's fighting. The two other elves grabbed Daeron and held him back while the twins did their best to hold the surprisingly strong elleth. "Get him out of here!" one of the twins yelled.

"I will kill you, Daeron!" Valaina yelled at the other elf. "If I ever see you again, I will kill you!"

"Take him to the holding cells, now! He is no longer safe around anyone," the other twin yelled.

The two elves holding Daeron dragged the elf away and out of sight. Valaina was still fighting the twins as they held her back. "Elladan, should we get father?" one asked to the other.

"No, Elrohir," Elladan said to his brother, "we can't leave her in this state."

"Valaina, calm down," Elrohir said in the most soothing voice he could manage as the elleth struggled.

"Eärlindë, take a deep breath and calm yourself down," added Elladan.

Valaina visibly shook as she began to calm down. Her eyes brightened in color as she looked around her to the twins and pass them to the five dwarves that were watching in strained silence. She took a deep, shaky breath. "He tried to kill me," she mumbled, "one of my oldest friends…just tried to kill me."

A single tear slid down her face. "Eärlindë…" Elladan trailed off.

With another deep breath, she stood tall and proud once more with a mask of calm on her face. She swiftly wiped away the single tear. Elladan and Elrohir let go of Valaina cautiously, and watched as the elleth began to pick up the shattered pieced of her dual blades. They shared a look as Valaina held in her hands twenty pieces of shattered blades. "Valaina?" Elrohir tried once more.

"Thank you for calming me," she said in a stiff voice.

She clenched the blades in her hands, the pieces biting into her flesh. She seemed to not notice as she stalked back toward the stairs and brushed past the dwarves as she made her way up the stairs and toward the forgery. "I thought elvish blades do not break," Dwalin said to Elrohir, or Elladan for he did not know who was who.

"She made hers with the other elf," Elrohir answered. "It took her four times to make those two blades, and she made them from the other elf's old broken sword. When they began to fight, their bonds of friendship were broken and therefor so were her swords."

"That's why they broke," Dwalin said. "Makes sense."

"Where is she going now?" asked Ori.

"If you think she is going to tend to her multitude of wounds, she probably isn't," Fili said with a shake of his head.

"No, she will," Elladan answered as he made his way after her. "I'm going to make sure of it. Then she can go make herself a new pair of dual blades."

Elrohir turned to the five dwarves with a kind smile. "Feel free to use the training fields. Closer to the mountain wall you will find the archery range. If you need to use the forges, please feel free as well. Any friend of Valaina's is our friend," he said to them.

"And any enemy of Eärlindë's is our enemy," warned Elladan from the top of the steps.


	12. Chapter 12: Alassë and Rúmil

Chapter 12: Alassë and Rúmil

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**A/N: So...I had to add this tonight because I am horrible and want to move on and have, well more action...yep...terrible person...me...as for the dwarvish and elvish! I used a few sites, so they may not be accurate. **

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** C.G: **Here's another update! And Chapter 9 explains why :)

** Guets: **Yes, the black mare mentioned in _Scarlet Eyes _was indeed Isil :) She needed her own spotlight in here lol. And yes, she did fall in battle...yes both pass away. If they had a filly, she'd be the most stubborn, hard headed, attention loving, action craving filly EVER! And she would either be black or bay...(I'd lean toward a dark bay XD). She'd also have a great deal of speed from her mom, endurance and height from both, and power from her dad. That'd be an interesting combo! (If they were only a year apart instead of 60 and both lived)

* * *

The twins stopped the lycan before she got anywhere near the forge, much to Valaina's discontent. Elrohir grabbed one arm gently and Elladan grabbed the other. Together, the brother led Valaina back to her room where they locked her up. "Let me out, assholes!" she yelled through the door as the twins kept the door shut and guarded.

"You need to bandage your wounds first," Elladan said.

Both the twins stood outside the doors with their arms crossed over their chest and looking ready to fight someone. They took up their positions outside Valaina's doors to make sure the elleth cleaned and bandaged her wounds.

With a growl, Valaina turned from the door and made her way over to her bathroom. She found her bath filled with water and wondered who the hell knew she needed a bath at the moment and how in the world are they so fast at getting it prepared. Of course, the elleth shrugged off her clothes and slipped in, cleaning her every single one of her wounds, the liquid stinging her. Yes, she was going to get sweaty again, but she had so many cuts and gashes on her body that she needed to fully submerge herself into the water and clean the wounds then. Valaina finished quickly and got out, dried off before putting on her undergarments, and bandaged herself up with some difficulty seeing as she usually came out with some kind of odd wound some way or another.

She put on her nearly black trousers, a white, short sleeved undershirt, and a nearly black leather corset vest. She rewrapped up her cut hands and fixed her hair before attempting to exit the room. "Elladan, Elrohir, let me out," she said through the door.

"Are your wounds taken care of?" Elladan, she assumed it was him, asked.

"Yes, now let me out."

"Valaina, where are you manners?" Elrohir responded.

"Please," she stated.

"Eärlindë," came Elladan's voice.

"Pretty please?"

A lock turned and the doors opened inward making Valaina take a few steps back to avoid being hit. "Yes you may," Elladan answered with a cheeky grin. "Where are your sword pieces at?"

"In my weapon's room in the chest I've been saving for when my blades break."

"You knew they were going to break?"

"No," Valaina gave a sigh. "I always thought one of my daggers or knives would break instead. Never, in a thousand years, would I have thought that my dual blades would have broken."

"Nothing is for certain," Elrohir said as the three began to make for the forges. "You are going to make a blade from scratch?"

"Two," the elleth answered. "Dual blades are my specialty, and I shall make a pair that will outdo the first."

"We shall leave you too it, then."

Valaina gave a nod and made her way to the forges located near the training fields. She walked into the building like area and was greeted with the hot air. She only saw one other elf in the forge at the time, and he was tending to the fires. Valaina put on a large, leather apron to keep from getting sparks on her clothes. The other elf in the room looked at Valaina with a stunned looked before the elleth's red eyes met his light blue. "Valaina," he said in a hearty tone, "I have not seen you in here for a long while."

"Landion, it has been a long time indeed," she said in a stale tone. "I'm making a pair of dual blades-"

"Say no more! The metal you would like is on the left wall. I shall tend the fire."

"Thank you."

The Valaina pulled out a piece of metal, the same material that, without a doubt, was nearly the same as Bilbo's short sword or even Glamdring. How Rivendell came by the material from the First Age, Valaina did not know and did not care to ask. She moved to the fire, not bothering with the leather gloves. All the feelings she had inside her all but disappeared save the anger within. She held up her arm and measured the metal using her elbow to the tip of her middle finger. She used a small etching blade to mark off where she would make the long piece of the material into two dual blades. It had grown even hotter in the room, and Valaina was starting to feel the heat even though temperatures did not usually affect elves. She stuck the stuck one end of the blade into the fire up to the line and let it grow red hot. She then removed it and proceeded to somehow cut the blade into two different blades. She took the already heated blade and began to work on forming the actual blade first.

Valaina didn't take any notice of her slowly burning hands as they healed over quickly, her anger fueling her need to make new blades and healing the minor hand wounds. Because of the rising anger, she didn't hear when the door to the forge opened again and someone walked in other than Landion. Valaina stuck the blade back into fire with more force than necessary. "The blade is coming out fine, but if you handle it like it is already made it will not come out right," the new person said.

"What are you doing in here, Thorin?" Valaina asked with venom as she turned to glare at the dwarf. "I thought you didn't care for _elves_ let alone a _she-elf _like _me_."

"I'm not particularly fond of elves, as you know," he said in the same tone as Valaina turned back to the forming blade, "but I heard what happened with your own short swords."

"What about them? They are broken."

"Did you craft them?"

"Yes," Valaina said as she glared at the fire in the furnace in front of her. "What of it?"

"They were remarkable, if I may say so. Very well done. But, you will not make another pair like that if you keep treating your new ones like you are," Thorin stated. "If you'd allow me, I would like to help."

"Help?" Valaina sneered as she was half in her Rage. "Last I remembered you didn't want help _from _an elf and now you want to _give _help to one?"

Valaina turned to face the dwarf and saw that he was already putting on another leather apron over his bare chest, hair tied back in a low ponytail. "Just shut up and let me help you," he said as he pulled on a pair of leather gloves. "Stubborn elleth."

Valaina gave a snort and looked at the forming blade. "Take it out of the fire and I'll form it for you," Thorin said. "Unless you would like to throw it around again."

Valaina gave a small smile despite the fact she was still angry. "Alright," she sighed.

She pulled the sword out and held it over the anvil as Thorin began to form the blade. After a the blade had been formed, they turned to heat treating it and made sure that not one single area was over or under stressed and the blade was perfect and ready for sharpening. Valaina sharpened the blade by hand with great skill, something Thorin didn't expect until Valaina told him that when she first began to stay in Rivendell she would often get into fights and would be punished by having to sharpen every single blade by hand that was made that day. It was a lengthy task, but greatly calmed her. "How often did that happen?" Thorin asked as Valaina switched the sides of the blade.

"Every day."

"How long did you spend sharpening swords exactly?"

"Around six hours until I became so good that they had me help make the swords and then sharpen them."

"And, how long exactly did you keep that up?" he asked with a slight smile.

"Let's just say I did it for a good near twenty years. Half my day was spent here as a punishment, the other half was training or even a mixture of the two."

Thorin shook his head as Valaina finished the blade, handle and all. She polished the blade quickly and efficiently with the same skill she had at sharpening. The two then moved to the next blade, Valaina a lot more calm than before. She started forming the blade and Thorin finished it, and then Valaina heat treated it. "So, what really made you help me?" Valaina asked as she sharpened the blade by hand yet again.

"Fili and Kili told me of what happened with you and…the other elf."

"Okay…"

"For one, I make better blades than you anyhow," Thorin added with a carefree and challenging voice, "and I figured you may like some company even if it was a _dwarf_."

Valaina smiled a little as Thorin mocked his own race's name in a lighthearted manner. "Thank you," she said after a while. "It means a lot, you know."

Valaina looked at her dwarf companion and saw the small, rare smile he gave her and she returned it with one of her own. She finished sharpening and polished the blade after a while. Thorin left with Valaina, and that was when he noticed the many bandages she had on and her very burnt hands. "He got you that bad?" he asked as they walked through the halls toward the guest rooms the dwarves were sharing as it was well into the night.

"I could think of several excuses right now," she answered, "but I won't. Yes, he did."

"Long sword?"

"Yep."

"Always better than you?"

"In a fair fight."

"You don't fight fair though," Thorin said with a hint of a challenge.

"No, I don't. And that is exactly why."

"Kili said he really thought you were going to kill Daeron."

Valaina thought about that statement for a moment and then gave a subtle nod. "I was," she answered, "and if Elladan and Elrohir hadn't stepped in, he would have been dead."

"I would have let you."

Valaina gave a nod in agreement. "If I so much as see him round a corner, I will kill him without hesitation," she growled.

"My nephews told me everything."

"Of course they did," Valaina answered though she knew the dwarves hid nothing from each other.

The two walked in silence for a moment and they came to the open doors of Valaina's room. "Do you mind if I stop and grab my sheaths?" she asked as she motioned to the two blades in her hands.

"Go ahead. And you may want to bandage those hands again."

Valaina walked in and strapped on her usual weapons, including her new blades, before she bandaged her hands and walked back out with Thorin to continue on to where the rest of the dwarf's company was staying. "My nephews are very fond of you as well as Ori," Thorin said after a while in silence.

"How so?" Valaina asked cautiously.

"They see you sort of like one of the family," he said in slight distaste.

It was true, for Valaina had seen the two look at her like they looked at each other. It was a look one gives a sibling. Valaina had pondered on it for many hours on the road until the incident at the Hidden Valley entrance. She realized that the two dwarves perceived her as not just a friend, but a sort of sister-companion, and she returned the feeling. It was much like the way she felt toward the Dunedain ranger, Aragorn. He was like an older brother to her even though she far out matched him in age. It was the same way she felt about Elladan and Elrohir, and she was glad she could share the feeling with a few others and know that they would not betray her like so many others had. If one thing about the dwarves always remained true it was their loyalty as friends.

They had reached the entrance to the living room that the dwarves shared. "If I may be honest here," Valaina said before Thorin moved to open the door, "I will say that I look at your nephews, and little Ori, as if they were like Elladan and Elrohir. They are not really my brothers, but we share that kind of bond. I hope, one day, that you and the others besides Fili, Kili, and Ori come to accept me as a friend or even like they have."

Thorin regarded the elleth with a nod of understanding. "You do not have to wait long for most already see you as such," he said in the same gentle voice he sometimes uses on his nephews. "You do not have my full trust, though. I do not trust elves easily as you know."

"Then I will have to prove to you that I really am worth your friendship, Thorin Oakenshield."

"It's Thorin."

Valaina gave a small smile and a slight bow of her head before she followed the dwarf into the living room. "Hey, lass! You don't look as bad as you did earlier!" Dwalin yelled across the room with a mug of ale in his hand.

"Thanks, Dwalin," she replied in a sarcastic but joking tone, "it's good to know that."

"It is nice to see you don't want to murder someone," Fili added.

"I like your new blades!" threw in Kili.

"Did they just start drinking?" Valaina asked Thorin in a low voice.

"Yes."

"Okay, they really mean it then."

"What do you mean?" Thorin asked with fake shock and confusion.

"With Fili and Kili," she said in a low voice, "you never know what is and is not a joke."

Thorin went to defend the two but shook his head. "That is very much true."

"The elves brought us food and ale again," Ori said from his position leaning against a pillar that led to the open balcony.

"I told them to make sure they bring some meat and ale or they would have to deal with grumpy dwarves," Valaina added with a smile.

"Would you care to join us?" Dori asked with a cheerful smile.

"No thanks," the elleth said with a polite shake of her head. "I lost my appetite today."

"Sit," Kili and Fili said as they each took an arm of the elleth and pulled her down to sit on the small steps that lead down to the fire pit. "We won't take no for an answer."

"But-"

Fili promptly shoved a mug of ale into the elleth's hand. "At least a drink," he said.

"One," confirmed Valaina.

She drank the ale and gave the mug back before relaxing on steps. "Can we see them?" Kili asked as Thorin took up a mug and moved to sit with Balin and Dwalin to share little talk with them. "Your new blades."

Valaina sat up and pulled them out in a swift, clean motion, twirled them a bit and then held them out to Kili. The clean blades were very different from her previous ones along with the hilts. "They are different," Kili said as he passed a blade to his brother. "I remember your other ones, but I never had a good look."

"The hilts are very different," Valaina started as she pulled a hilt of her old blade from her belt, some of the broken blade still attached.

She held it next to the new blade and the differences were very noticeable. The old hilt was light in color with subtle, yet decorative, elvish etching around the base. The new hilts, on the other hand, were darker in color with a tint of red in the light, and at the base of each was a small etching of traveling paws with intricate swirls coming off of them in a way that made it look almost like a small ghost dog had walked across the base of the hilts. They were the same shape and without a pommel or guard as they were small swords and easier to wield. On the old blade still attached to the hilt, Kili could make out words in the curved, elegant handwriting of the elves. "What does this say in the common tongue?" he asked.

"That is Sindarin, and it says _Tiri o Mellen_, Guard of Friends. On the other side of this blade," Valaina paused as Kili flipped the broken blade's hilt to show the other side with the same writing at the base except different letters, "this one was _Ruin_, Flame. The other was _Gwest_, Oath."

"Why did you name them that?" Fili asked as if the blades were a joke.

"I made these blades from Daeron's broken blade he had poorly crafted," Valaina began to explain. "He had named his blade Flaming Oath which I had always thought was ridiculous, but then again he was still young. I forged those swords out of our friendship, and I did not think we would ever grow apart from one another. We often would go on border patrols together, and, since I was prone on antagonizing those by our borer, we would ended up fighting. I saved him many times in tight situations, and that was where the blades name came from, _Tri o Mellen_. He named the individual blades _Ruin _and _Gwest _because he thought it was funny."

Kili turned the new sword in his hand and his eyes grew wide. "This is Khuzdul, our own language," he said in shock. "Few others know of this language beyond our race. How do you know it?"

"I don't," Valaina said slowly as she looked over to Thorin who gave her and his nephews a nod. "What does it say?" she asked as she turned her eyes back to the blade.

"It says _Naus ald Baraz Kaon Grimm_," Kili said as Fili flipped the blade in his hands over as well.

"Swords of the Red Eyed Wolf," Fili translated. "It is the same on both blades."

"The elvish names are different," added Kili.

"What do those say?" Fili asked as they flipped the blades back over.

Valaina inspected the writing of the right sword first. "This is _Alassë_, the wolf-fang," she said as she read the name before turning to the other blade, "and this is _Rúmil_, fire-killer. Elladan used to call me _Alassë_ whenever I hunted and brought back some of the biggest kill. Elrohir would often call me _Rúmil _for I would always spar with him and his brother. They called me a fire killer, a dirty fighter because I would often times win with moves I pulled out of nowhere. Basically they were named after two of my nicknames so to say."

"They fit them well," Fili said as he handed the blades back. "They don't have a design on the blade this time. Why is that?"

"Have you ever tried to clean an etched blade?" Valaina asked as she sheathed both blades. "Pain in the ass, and I feel it is more battle worthy."

"I must agree with you on that," Kili said. "They are spectacular blades. Will you test them out tomorrow?"

"What else is there to do in this place?" she commented.

The dwarves left for bed one by one as the moon rose higher in the sky until only Valaina and Thorin were left as a drunken Kili and Fili stumbled their way to a room the two brothers shared. Valaina followed them to their open door, making sure they made it all the way into the room. The brothers flopped down on their separate beds, laughed, and then passed out. Valaina shut the door and turned to Thorin who was just as sober as she was. "I think I'll retire for the night," she said awkwardly as she made her way to the door. "Thanks again for helping with my dual blades."

"Thank you for giving us time on our way to the Hidden Valley. We all appreciate it," Thorin said with his usual stern face. "And thank you for making sure that Kili made it safely."

Valaina fixed Thorin with a serious face as well. "That is what a friend does for another," she said in a sincere voice, "if I may call those of your company my friends."

"As much as I do not like elves, especially when they have a good point," Thorin sighed, "but I agree with you. Those of this company perceive you as a friend. They trust you, especially my nephews."

"And do you trust me?"

Thorin was quite for a moment before he gave a subtle nod. "I must admit that I, too, trust you," he said in a sincere voice as well before he added, "even if you are an elf."

"That is enough for me," Valaina said before she walked away.


	13. Chapter 13: Departures

Chapter 13: Departures

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**A/N: Hi! Chapter time! And, yes, warning a head of time. It will be bloody, cruel, and sad. Just WARNING.**

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The clanging of swords rang out in the late morning air. "Hey!" Kili yelled as he dropped his sword to the ground.

"I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not," Valaina said with a smile.

Kili, Fili, and Valaina had been taking turns sparring with each other since dawn. Kili had, once again, been disarmed by Valaina. Fili stood to the side holding back a laugh. "That's not fair," Kili stated as he picked up his sword.

"What?" asked Valaina innocently.

"You can't go to punch someone and then tickle them!"

Valaina and Fili exchanged a glance before they broke out into laughter. "I didn't tickle you! I poked you in the side with the hilt of your sword," Valaina said after some time. "I didn't know you would be ticklish there."

Kili crossed his arms over his chest, the look of a scolded up on his face only made Valaina laugh again. Then, Kili smiled. "You actually do laugh," he said as Valaina slowly stopped laughing.

"So I do," she said as she straightened herself up again and her smile disappeared. "Shall we?"

Kili lunged for Valaina, conscious of his vulnerable ticklish sides. Valaina blocked the attack and countered with one of her own. They exchanged attacks and parries for a few minutes before Valaina decided she needed to spice it up a bit. As Kili came at her again, Valaina dove to the side in a roll. She popped up on Kili's left and swept his feet out from under him before she pointed her sword at his chest. "You don't fight fair," he stated.

"Haven't you learned that already when I poked your side?"

"I won't forget that," he said as Valaina helped him up. "Fili, your turn again."

"No way, not after that," his brother replied. "I've been put on the ground plenty of times already."

"Valaina!" someone yelled out. "We need you now!"

Valaina turned to see Lindir running at the three with a panicked look on his face. "What do you want?" Valaina spat.

"Wargs-"

"I'm on it!" Valaina replied with excitement as she raced past Lindir and up the stairs off to the stables at a dead sprint.

"I didn't even get to finish," the elf said in disappointment and anger.

Kili and Fili exchanged a look. "She took off pretty fast," said Fili.

"About as fast as Bombur when you mention food," Kili added.

* * *

Valaina quickly saddled Isil, the mare's blood pumping with excitement for the coming battle. Valaina jumped into the saddle and urged Isil out of the stable at a gallop surprising several elves who dove out of the way of the mare's thundering hooves. They raced out of Rivendell like a bat out of hell, the two anxious for some action in the safe haven. The wind whipped past Valaina's face as they moved out of the valley and toward the open stretch of land. The mare wasted no time in crossing the ice cold river in a few strides before disappearing into the forests.

They came upon the land Valaina and the company had run across to escape some wargs nearly two weeks earlier, and Isil slowed to a canter as Valaina used her senses to pick up where the wargs were. She spotted them dashing around a few trees, several elves firing arrows at them. "Let's join the fun, shall we?" Valaina asked Isil as the other six elves tore off after ten wargs plus scouts in the opposite direction.

The black mare snorted and took off toward the remaining warg pack members. Valaina tallied them quickly and came out with twenty wargs as she unsheathed her blades. Her eyes, unbound at the present moment (the border patrol elves knew her), flashed different hues of red as she and Isil came closer to the wargs. A warg jumped at the horse and rider only for Isil to dodge to the side as Valaina's blade slashed open the warg's neck. The warg rolled over his orc rider, crushing him under the dead weight. Valaina turned back and twirled her blades threateningly at the wargs. Two broke off and charged, Valaina urging Isil to do the same. The mare turned at the last second and bucked, her rear hooves smashing into a warg's head, a sickening crunch of bones greeting the hooves as the warg's skull was cracked. Valaina stabbed the second warg with her blade and quickly decapitated the two orcs before her enemies fell to the ground. Isil took off again, this time racing for three wargs bearing orc riders. They were attempting to escape with their pitiful lives.

Valaina sheathed her blades and unhooked her feet from the stirrups as Isil began to draw up close to the retreating wargs. Valaina jumped, shifting in the air as she did so. She landed and began running beside her black mare, Valaina's white furred coat standing out against Isil's black horse fur. Valaina drew up beside one warg and bowled it over, going down with the warg. She jumped to her feet and bite down on the warg's neck in a quick maneuver before she tore the warg's throat open. The orc rider had disappeared when Valaina and the warg went down. The elleth turned her head in time to see a mace connect with her side from another warg. She rolled, blood covering her white fur as large wounds opened on her side. She jumped up, red eyes flaming in anger, before she jumped and tore the head off the orc that hit her. She tossed the head away and spit as much as a wolf could to rid her mouth of the foul taste of orc blood.

The riderless warg turned on Valaina and advanced, jowls curled back in a snarl. Valaina snarled back before charging. She slid under the warg as it jumped, and twisted to catch the warg's hind leg. She pulled it to the ground and listened with satisfaction when the warg huffed as the air in the animal left it as it came into contact with the ground. Valaina turned to finish it off when sharp teeth grabbed the back of her own neck and threw her. She flew through the air before landing in the ground and rolling to a stop. Dazed and angered, she managed to get on her feet long enough to see a brown mass of fur collide with her head on. The two went down and Valaina found herself rolling once more. She got up on unsteady feet before turning to the warg that was still trying to get on its own four paws. Valaina wasted no time in attacking the warg and killing it quickly.

She ran, her head spinning, her neck and sides aching, and a dull throb beginning to find its way into her chest. Valaina slowed to a lope and caught sight of a black horse struggling to get up. "No," she growled. "Isil!"

She took off at a sprint toward her black mare. The horse's striking blue eyes were filled with pain, and relief as Valaina came to a halt in front of her, the elleth shifting back from a wolf. "Isil," she whimpered as she checked the mare over.

Valaina's throat burned with held back tears as she saw the fatal wound on the mare's neck. It had been torn open and was bleeding freely. Along Isil's sides were deep claw marks, and as Valaina checked the mare's front leg she gasped and looked away into the mare's pained blue eyes. The reason why the mare couldn't get up was because her front right leg was shattered to the elbow in many places, large teeth marks showing that a warg had gotten to her first. "You weren't supposed to fight without me," Valaina mumbled as she cradled her dying horse's head in her lap and stroking the mare's forelock. "You were supposed to run."

Isil gave a nicker as her breathing began to slow, Valaina soothing the mare all the way until she closed her eyes. Valaina laid Isil's head gently on the grass before she moved to stand. Yet, her own injuries got to her first. The significant blood loss sent Valaina into unconsciousness.

* * *

Kili and Fili paced the courtyard that they had first met Elrond at. The sound of hooves stopped them in their tracks. "She's back," Kili said with a relieved smile.

"She's been hours!" added Fili.

But neither of the two horses that cantered up to Rivendell sported the black coat of the mare. One of the twins jumped off his dapple grey and raced over to his brother who had a bloodied elf in his arms. "Take Valaina to her room and bandage her up now," Elrohir said as he gently handed his twin Valaina's still body.

"No need to tell me that," Elladan answered as he took Valaina and began to make his way up the stairs.

Elrohir turned his large horse back to the bridge and cantered off. "What happened to her?" Kili asked as he and Fili followed Elladan.

"She was out numbered, like always," the elf said in a less than pleased tone. "She had to go and do it again."

"Where's Isil?" asked Fili.

Elladan turned sad, grey eyes onto the blonde dwarf. "She is no longer with us," he told them.

The brothers exchanged a sad look before they turned back to Elladan as he carried Valaina. "She's been gone the whole day," Kili started angrily. "Why are you just now bringing her back? When did you find her?"

Elladan sighed as they entered Valaina's open room. He placed Valaina on her bed softly before he started to clean her wounds with healer skills. "She fought the first warg pack, but they were only scouts. The two that escaped brought back reinforcements. She fought them as well, and then took off to the Valar knows where. Hours later we found her near the river just like this. She was consumed by grief for her mare, and took out that pain on anything that crossed her path which is why," Elladan paused and pulled a large splinter from Valaina's side, "she has splinters in her sides."

"Will she be alright?" Fili asked.

"Without a doubt."

"When will she wake?" asked Kili.

"Soon," Elladan finished cleaning Valaina's wounds up and stood. "Now, let's leave her to what is left of her rest. She'll find you two later."

Kili was about to object when his brother grabbed his arm and drug him out of the room. The dwarves went to find the rest of their companions to give them the news of the elleth. "Are they gone?" Valaina asked in a hoarse voice.

"They are," Elladan answered. "Go bath and find them later."

"Thanks," she grumbled as she slowly sat up, wincing as the pain bit into her.

"Isil was buried in the place you two loved to spend time at," Elladan added softly.

"Thank you."

The twin gave a nod before he left, closing the doors behind him to leave Valaina.

* * *

"Elrond has read the map," Thorin said. "We shall leave at first light tomorrow. Gandalf will join us then."

The double doors to the guest living room opened, and a tired, beat up looking elleth leaned against the door frame casually examining one of her daggers. "When did you plan on tell me thing?" Valaina asked in a carefree voice.

"Well…um…"

Valaina stopped examining her dagger and glared at Thorin. "Just because I get my ass kicked by a bunch of wargs does not mean I am going to be left behind in this place," she glowered.

"It's good to see you are feeling better, Valaina," Kili said with a smile.

"We didn't doubt you for a second!" Fili added and several dwarves looked at him with a 'really' face. "Okay, well most of us didn't doubt you would be up for it."

"Thanks, Fili, Kili," said Valaina as she moved away from the door frame, hiding a wince of pain as she did so.

"You should be resting, regaining your strength," Dwalin said from cleaning his war hammer.

"Yes, I should. But I wanted to make sure that we were leaving in the morning."

"If you already knew, then why come ask?"

"Because _she _is here," Valaina said with much distaste.

"Who?" asked Ori.

"Galadriel," Valaina said the name with hate, "the bitch of the wood."

"And why did I see that coming?" Kili mumbled to Fili.

"I want to be out of here as soon as possible to keep from having to run into _her_."

"What happened between you two?" Gloin asked in general curiosity.

Valaina turned and began to leave to rest up and heal. She stopped at the doorway, and said over her shoulder, "She's the bitch that cast me out of my home. She's the one that threatened my life if I ever step foot back in Lothlorien again. And all because I am a lycan that she cannot see with her _power_. She can fall off a cliff for all I care."

Valaina left and made for her rooms. "She doesn't like her very much, does she?" Fili said.

"She doesn't like a lot of people," Kili corrected.

"And I'd hate to be one of them," added Dwalin.


	14. Chapter 14: Road Stories

Chapter 14: Road Stories

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**A/N: Stories! Yay! More stories! These are not repeats from ****_Scarlet Eyes_**** either! Enjoy :) Reviews, favs, and follows are always welcomed and appreciated! It looks like we are nearing the mountains as well...hehe...**

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Valaina was up waiting for the dwarves well before dawn. She leaned against the stone statue of an elf as she waited for the dwarves. They arrived in pairs, more or less. Thorin was the first to greet her. "How long have you been here?" he asked.

"Around two hours," Valaina answered in a tired voice as she removed her hand from her face, her scarlet eyes revealing her swirling emotions. "It's my fault she died."

Thorin knew who Valaina was talking about. She had been thinking of Isil, the mare that had always been there for her. "It's not your fault," Thorin tried to reassure the elleth. "She was just as battle hungry as you."

Valaina gave a huff of a chuckle. "Yeah…"

"Morning, Uncle," Kili and Fili said at the same time. "Morning, Valaina."

"Morning," Thorin and Valaina both responded.

Balin and Dwalin soon arrived after that followed by Oin and Gloin. Soon after the two brothers arrived, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur also made their entrance and where soon joined by Nori, Dori, Ori and Bilbo. "That's everyone," Thorin said and started across the bridge. "Let's move."

Several of the dwarves, and Bilbo, looked over their shoulders to catch a last glimpse of Rivendell before they truly stepped back into the wild. Valaina, however, did not spare a single glance at the place as she walked with Fili and Kili, the two insisting she walk with them for the time being in case they were "too hung over" from drinking the night before. "Be on your guard," Thorin called to the company. "We are about to step over the Edge of the Wild. Balin, you know these paths, lead on."

"Aye," Balin responded and began to lead them.

"I could have told you where to go," Valaina muttered to herself. "Hello, frequent visitor of Rivendell."

"No one asked your opinion," Dwalin said good-naturedly.

"I figured."

"Master Baggins," Valaina heard Thorin say, "I suggest you keep up."

"Wouldn't want to get left behind," Fili said sarcastically.

"He doesn't want to leave," said Valaina as they made their way up the mountain side of the valley. "Most don't ever want to leave Rivendell."

"Except for maybe you," Kili said.

"Well, I'm always the exception."

"You didn't bring your bow?"

"I only bring my bow in the case I need an extra defense when I can't use my wolf side," Valaina explained. "Besides, it's my mothers and I do not wish to break it again."

"Oh," was all Kili said.

The rocky path grew steep and narrow, and Valaina found herself holding onto the wall for support. "Damn path," she growled, "either this path is shrinking or I grew taller."

"No," Fili said as he steadied Bilbo who slipped up on a loose rock, "you're quite the same height. Still short for an elf."

Valaina gave a snort. "I'm only five foot six."

"That's still short. A good six inches taller than most of us," Dori said as they finally made it off the rocky path and onto the valley grounds.

Valaina scanned the horizon as she moved away from the path to allow the rest of the dwarves to also make their way up. "It's a three day walk to the mountains," she heard Balin say.

The snowcapped mountains around them varied in size to show just how far they were away. Rocky, grass covered fields bordered by green forests that rose up to the mountain base and less steep mountains now lay in their path. They began to walk once more, and Valaina felt her heart ache as she thought of the time she spent with Isil on this particular path. Valaina touched the thin, black horse tail braided necklace on her neck that was hidden by her white undershirt. Little silver beads encompassed several places on the necklace, and Valaina felt the familiar ache of a loss. Her hand dropped as she began to walk forward, a mask of calm about her features.

"We could have taken some horses," Bofur complained. "It would have made travel faster."

"Bofur!" Gloin reprimanded.

Several heads turned to Valaina to see if she had noticed the comment. If she had, she gave no signs except for the calm, stiff movements of her walk. They walked on in silence for a while until Ori got bored. "Can't we do something while we walk?" he whined.

"You can keep quiet," Dori snapped.

"Why doesn't someone tell a story or something? It's so bothersome to walk in quiet!"

"No one wants-"

"I travel this area often," Valaina started as she moved up next to Ori. "This one day I was with the twins, Elladan and Elrohir. They wanted to see if I could run faster than a horse so we came here. We were going to race to the edge of that forest, and whoever got there first got first pick of the new horses. Anyhow, I took off, as a wolf mind you, and was stride for stride with Elladan's stallion the whole way. We were about two miles from the forest where we would finish. Neither of us saw the trap, so when Elladan's horse suddenly stopped, I kept going thinking I was going to win when I ran right into this giant hole."

"You are an elf with eyes like a hawk," Dori started. "How in the world did you not see that?"

"I have absolutely no idea. But as I fell I hit my head on my way down and went unconscious," Valaina continued. "But my question still is how orcs were smart enough to dig a hole for a trap, cover it, and wait for their quarry."

"You fell into an orc trap?" Gloin asked as he too started to listen in on the story as did several others.

"Next time you are racing a horse for hours on end, tell me if you are concentrating on the ground or on the finish line. Anyway, I finally woke up and Elladan was gone. He had left to get Elrohir to help me out."

"You couldn't get out of a hole as a wolf?" asked Dwalin with a smile. "Can't you jump high?"

"The wall was smooth and I couldn't get a foothold," Valaina defended herself.

"What about your daggers?" Ori asked.

Valaina's face gave off an embarrassed expression. "I may have left them back in my room that day. So, it was night and I had been out for a good three hours. A rope was thrown down to me, and I began to climb thinking it was the twins."

"It was the orcs, wasn't it?" Fili stated rather than asked.

"Yes, it was the orcs. It was a surprise, okay? And my head was killing me."

"Don't tell me they tied you up without a fight," said Kili in genuine shock.

"They hit me over the head with…something," Valaina said as she frowned. "Don't know what it was. I may have been a frying pan, but I was knocked out anyway. The next thing I know is someone yelling at me. I woke up and this orc was staring at me. He scared the living shit out of me, so naturally I kicked him in the face, freed myself, and turned to run only to find that I was now hanging off a cliff."

"You had some bad luck that night, lass," Gloin said. "Did you fall?"

"Just to get away from them I slipped down the rock wall. We weren't that far from the forest so I just fell, and then I landed on something."

"Was it one of the twins?" Ori asked.

"Was it Elrond?" Gloin chimed in.

Fili asked if it was Gandalf, and Valaina shook her head each time. "It was a warg pack," Valaina said. "They weren't very happy about it. It wasn't my night, okay?"

"So what happened?" Ori asked excitedly.

"Well, my initial shock, I got up while the wargs were fighting each other while trying to stand up. There was about fifteen in this one, just a scouting pack. My head was pounding, and I mean pounding. I had probably hit my head about four times now. One on my way down the hole, hit by an orc, on the rock, and then on a warg head. So I wasn't in the best shape to fight…or run straight. I began to run through the forest. I probably ran into several trees, scrapped up my sides, and even tripped over a few rocks. It wasn't very pretty to say the least. And that's not even the best part. Did you know wargs are not fond of water?"

"Um…no…" Kili said.

"Well, they aren't. I had just gotten past the forest with these fifteen wargs behind me when I fell face first into the river. It was really high at this point because the snow in the mountains had just melted. I found a rock to hold onto, and watched as several of the wargs also ran straight out of the trees and into the water. They looked like someone had set their tails on fire as the river swept those few away. The others were testing the water and debating whether or not to jump in after me. A few were pushed in as they fought each other. That was until Elladan finally found me. The wargs took off and then it was a matter of getting me out of the middle of this river. It was pretty damn fast and I was not thinking straight, so when he came to help me I thought he was going to attack me," Valaina paused.

"So what happened?" Kili urged her on.

"I pulled him off his horse and into the water, stole his horse, and left. He wasn't too happy about it, but thankfully his brother was there to help him back."

"Did you get your horse after all that?"

"I got Isil," Valaina smiled. "And I also got a week of stable cleaning for leaving Elladan alone in that water."

"That happened all in one night?" Ori asked astonished.

"Well, yes," Valaina confirmed. "It was better than one of the few troll incidents I had."

"You had more than one troll incident?" Kili asked.

"Of course! I've had several."

"What other kinds of trouble have you run into?" asked Fili.

"Well," Valaina began to go through her head and pick out the most interesting things she had indeed run into. "I fell off a cliff when I was surprised by a hoard of bats. I was captured several times by trolls. I was nearly eaten by a plant. I got trapped half in and half out of snow trying to get out of a cave. I got stuck hanging off a cliff while escaping a troll. I was almost sacrificed to a tree by a bunch of lunatics. The same lunatics then tried to marry me off to the same tree-"

"Whoa! Hold up!" Kili said as he held back his laugh. "You were almost sacrificed to a tree and then nearly married to it? I want to hear this one."

"You can hear it after we set up camp," Thorin grumbled.

Kili, Fili, and Ori all began to complain until Thorin glared at them. They mumbled their agreements and turned to start to set up camp. "Valaina, get some food," Thorin said.

Valaina gave a nod before shifting and sniffing the air. "I'm never going to get used to that," Dwalin said as he looked up and gave a start at the white wolf with the scarlet eyes.

Valaina turned her head to him, a wolfish smile on her face. "Most don't," she said.

She turned to the forest and caught the scent of a deer and raced after it. In less than twenty minutes, she had caught the deer and killed it. The camp was set up and the sun was nearly gone from the sky as Valaina trudged back to the camp nestled against a few large boulders within the first few trees. She bowed and let the deer slid gently to the ground before standing and shifting back. "That sucker was hard to catch," she said as Bombur and Bofur took the deer and began to skin and gut it.

"So," Bofur said Bombur began to cook the stew with the deer meat, "what about that story now?"

"The one with the tree and the crazy people?" Valaina asked as she sat down against a tree.

"Yeah," Ori agreed.

Valaina gave a small smile before sitting up some. "So I was traveling through this one forest on the outskirts of a small town. Let me tell you this little tid bit before I go on: the elves taught the trees how to speak to each other though the language has long been lost to our ears. Wood elves can still feel the emotions of trees. But anyhow, the trees were angry at this village because they were foresters and cut down the trees to sell to other towns. When I was traveling through the forest, I happened to stop at this village to ask a few questions. That was when the trees had attacked half of their village. Being an elf, they immediately thought it was my fault and captured me. They thought that the trees didn't like _me _and where about to sacrifice me to this tree so to try and appease the forest. The forest wasn't happy about that and right before they could attempt to kill me the executioner was drug under the ground and disappeared."

"They were going to kill you to appease trees," Balin asked as if he still couldn't believe it.

"Yes. They were not the brightest people. They actually thought that elves hated the trees and that dwarves loved them."

"What sick people would think that?" Bombur asked as Bofur began to dish out the stew.

"Obviously these people. I even told them that they must have been dropped on their heads as babies. They didn't take that very well."

"Who would?" said Fili.

"So after the guy was drug under the ground, the women thought the trees loved me. They took me and put me in a…" she gave a nervous swallow, "a…ahem…dress. A white dress," she said the word as if it were poison. "They did my hair all pretty and that shit and sent me into this forest with a thing of flowers. As soon as they were out of sight, I literally ran into Gandalf. He asked me what I was doing. I said that apparently I was about to be married to a forest."

"What did you do after that?" Ori asked completely enthralled by the story.

"I threw away the flowers, which were weeds by the way because these people were beyond stupid," Valaina said as she gave Bofur a nod of thanks as he handed Valaina a bowl of stew. "I shifted and attacked the village. I found where they were storing my weapons and clothes and changed. As soon as I walked out they thought I was a freaking ghost. I had enough of their stupidity and left. As soon as I found Gandalf about a mile out of town I heard the screams and the forest did something with those people. I don't think they killed them, but they did something."

"Why?"

"They were offended by the fact that I was almost sacrificed and then married to this forest."

"You have some interesting adventures," Dori said after Valaina finished her story and stew.

"Yeah," she said as Bofur took her bowl, "I'm like a magnet for odd adventures."

"What was your oddest encounter yet?" asked Kili.

Valaina was silent for a moment as she thought through the many odd encounters and adventures she had. "My oddest encounter was with this one lady. I literally fell out of the forest and onto this path as I was following the scent of a deer. She was so excited that I had popped out. I couldn't figure out why she was grabbing a rope until she called me a horse. I went to explain to her that I wasn't a horse, but she was too happy that her 'horse' had returned to so I decided to help her out. I carried her on my back just like a horse all the while she kept talking about how she was traveling to meet this man who told her that he was a king and he was going to marry her. Soon she took up this conversation with several invisible people on horses.

"I was seriously wondering if she was in her right mind when she pointed at this clearing and said we were at the village. There was not a single soul in sight. Not even a stupid squirrel. She just jumped off my back and started greeting invisible people and laughing with them. She hugged several other 'people' before she grabbed some invisible guy and introduced him to me, the horse. A shock look came about her face when this guy apparently whispered something into her ear. She said that I needed to leave and never come back again so I began to leave. I turned back around right before I left the clearing and she freaking turned completely white like a ghost and disappeared into a tree without another word."

"What did you do?" Dwalin asked.

"I high tailed it out of that place as fast as I could," Valaina said with a 'really' look. "If you start seeing ghosts around you then that is a sign that you should not be at that place."

"Have you met anyone else like that?"

"No, and I am not going to. If someone freaking calls me a horse, and they do not look like an elderly person, I am running," Valaina said. "I bet you can't top that."

"Well," Kili started, "he was tied to a branch and was being cooked alive by a bunch of trolls."

"If I remember correctly," Dwalin said as he fixed the young dwarf a glare, "you were tied in a sack when that troll dropped Bombur on you."

"At least I wasn't tied to a tree."

Valaina chuckled. "Ha…dwarf on a branch…" she mumbled.

"You were tied to a tree too!" Dwalin countered her.

"At least I was going to be traded instead of eaten," she said back.

"Parasites…you still couldn't have come up with a better come back on that one Kili?" Fili said as he remembered Kili shouting to Bilbo that they didn't have parasites, but Bilbo had parasites.

Bilbo smiled. "It was pretty good if you all hadn't ruined it," he said.

"I was tied in a sack about to be eaten!" Kili defended. "What did you want me to do?"

"Come up with something better than 'you have parasites'."

"At least you weren't apart of the meal, Dwarf on a Branch," Valaina added.

Kili turned to Valaina who was chuckling quietly. "And what exactly happened with the other troll incidents with you?" he asked.

"I was going to be traded for meat," Valaina said, "and the other troll thought I was its pet. And the third…"

"What happened with the third?" Kili asked with a sneer.

The dwarves around them turned to Valaina. "Well the third was going to eat me."

"So how did you get away?" Bilbo asked.

"I was not infested with parasites for one," Valaina said with a small chuckle. "And the seasoning wasn't a mistake either. I merely argued with the troll about how you cook certain races."

"What did you say about elves?" Dwalin asked.

"I told him that we didn't have any meat on us and we tasted like green food to which he agreed. But, he then asked about men. I told him that the men that were armored were too tough to eat and the younger ones weren't ripe enough. I also said that you can't eat anything raw because that is what turns you to stone in the morning."

"What did you say about dwarves?" Kili asked.

"I said that they are the cause of turning to stone in the morning because they live under ground and in mountains," Valaina with a smile.

"But how did you get away?" asked Fili.

"I told him that if he really wanted to have a good breakfast that he would break the tree in front of him and find cows on the other side. Of course he broke the tree off and there was the sun. He turned to stone just in time for me to cut through the rope and dive out of the way of the falling troll."

"I didn't think they were smart enough to argue with their next meal," Dwalin said.

"They aren't. You just discuss how to cook meats with them and they will listen."

The moon was now high in the sky, and several dwarves were already nodding off. "Kili, Fili," Thorin called to the brothers, "you have first watch."

"Yes, Uncle," they replied.

Valaina gave a sigh as she looked up at the sky, the stars bright and happy as they looked down to the company. "What are you thinking about now?" Kili asked as he sat next to Valaina to watch the company.

"I was thinking of how peaceful the stars seem to always be," she said. "You look up and they are there just…watching."

"They are just stars," he mumbled.

"I know. How much longer do you think we will go before we run into trouble?"

"I'd say at least another day," Fili said as he took up the other side of Valaina. "Are you staying up with us?"

"Why not," Valaina said with a shrug. "It's not like I'll be able to sleep anytime soon. Something is coming. I feel it."

"Or do you smell it?"

"That would be you, Fili, that she smells," Kili said.

"Hey-"

"Would you three shut up? Some of us are actually trying to sleep," Gloin reprimanded them.

"Grumpy old dwarves," Kili muttered to the ellth.

"They are just upset that they have to wake up in the middle of their beauty sleep to take up their watch," added Fili.

Valaina gave a snort after trying to hold in her chuckle along with the two brothers. "Ow!" she whispered as a pebble hit her head.

"Shut up," Gloin said again as he gave Ori his pouch of pebbles back, the young dwarf pointing at the red-headed old dwarf as he laid back down. "Stupid, young…" Gloin trailed off into snores along with the other dwarves.

Valaina and the two brothers exchanged a look before they had to cover their mouths with their hands as they tried to hold back their laughter to no avail.


	15. Chapter 15: Thunder Battle

Chapter 15: Thunder Battle

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**A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, just so you know. I don't have anything else to say...**

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**Thanks for Favoriting:**_  
Unorthodox119  
TheShawndaLee  
BloodyRose1312_

**Thanks for Following:**_  
Bloopa_

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** Seriya Silvermist (Ch.11): **I've always wanted to do that. And thanks :)

** Seriya Silvermist (Ch.12):** Yes, those are her blades in SE

** Seriya Silvermist (Ch.13): **Lol, yes bad things tend to happen XD. And yes, I got upset writing that part.

** Seriya Silvermist (Ch.14):** Dwarf on a branch...classic Valaina XD and Brainchild? That's epic! And I was thinking of doing that actually to pass the time between now and the _Desolation of Smaug_...wonder what to write? What perils shall they go through? XD

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They started walking again in the early morning, Valaina still being the first one awake much to Thorin's surprise. "Why are you always the first to wake?" he asked as they began to descend a slope that would lead them under a rocky outcropping with a waterfall to avoid the river overhead.

"Elves need little sleep," Valaina said as she watched where she put her feet on the increasingly slipper rock, "and I am used to getting up before dawn."

"Watch your-"

Valaina stepped on a large loose rock and slipped. Two pairs of hands caught her before she went down completely, and helped her back onto solid ground. "Step," Thorin finished.

"Thanks," Valaina said to Kili and Thorin.

"Out of all the elves you are the least graceful," said Fili as they began to move again.

"You are just now noticing that?"

"Don't mind him," Kili said with a smile as he passed his brother up, "he's just slow."

"Hey!"

They passed behind the waterfall and began to climb back up the steep slope and onto less slippery ground. The company began to climb upward on a brownish green grassy mountain, right next to a snow covered mountain. Patches of snow dotted the grass here and there and Valaina saw a few of the dwarves done on their extra cloaks. She moved up next to Bilbo and handed him her only cloak which she had neatly folded and placed behind her dual blades. "You look a little cold," she commented.

"Thanks, but it is much too big for me," the hobbit declined.

"Actually," Valaina smiled and forced the cloak into the hobbit's hands, "it's not. I have no need of one thanks to being an elf. We aren't affected by temperatures. I knew you'd forget something."

"Thank you," the hobbit said as he quickly put the cloak on.

"That was a kind gesture," Dwalin said as Valaina walked on. "Don't think I've ever seen you do that before."

Valaina shrugged before giving the dwarf a small glare. "Don't get used to it," she said.

"You can't fool me, lass. You do have some kind of heart underneath all that…hard exterior."

Valaina raised an eyebrow before both gave a chuckle. "Hard exterior?" she asked.

"I couldn't find a word for it."

"You meant my cold personality."

"There is nothing cold about you, Miss Valaina," Ori said as he walked past the two.

"Maybe her glare," Gloin muttered to Dori.

"Aye, that is true," agreed Dori.

They continued to walk in silence until something cold and somewhat hard hit Valaina's back twice. Her hand went straight to her dual blades as she whipped around only to see Fili and "innocently" stretching. She did not, however, miss the large pile of snow beside them nor did she miss the snickering that came from the two. Valaina continued to walk until she, too, found a large pile of snow big enough to make some snowballs. Something cold hit Valaina's arm and she caught Ori "innocently" looking for his cloak which he already had on. She sensed something behind her and quickly ducked. She watched as the two snowballs hit the back of Bofur and Dwalin's heads. They whipped around to see the shocked expressions on Kili and Fili's faces. "What in Durin's name are you two doing?" Dwalin asked in shock.

"Well…we…" the two stammered.

Valaina popped back up and threw two snowballs that met their marks as they hit Kili and Fili in the shoulders as they turned to each other. She ducked behind a rock again as they quickly fired back. She moved to throw another one when she turned to avoid being hit in the face by Ori and instead being hit in her shoulder. "You four are such-" Dwalin started until he was bombarded by three snowballs.

The company had stopped at Dwalin's reprimanding. The dwarf sat up and bundled up a snowball next to Valaina. "They are going to pay," he growled before jumping and throwing a snowball along with Valaina.

Thorin shook his head in pure horror and dismay as he watched his two nephews, Valaina, Dwalin, and the youngest member of their group have a snowball fight. That was until Kili dove right into Fili to avoid Valaina's amazing aim which sent the blonde dwarf stumbling and miss throwing. The snowball sailed and hit Thorin in the shoulder. Everything stopped as Kili and Fili looked up from their spot on the ground. Valaina half expected Thorin to yell or shout, but he did neither. As Kili and Fili began to stand up, a snowball collided with Fili's face and then Kili's sending the brothers back to the ground. The company looked at Thorin who was standing with his hands behind his back, his usual look on his face. The two brothers stood up once more and looked ashamed at their uncle. "Next time you decide to goof off," Thorin said as his right hand moved in front of him to show him holding a snowball, "make sure you don't hit me."

He then threw the snowball at Kili who quickly pulled his brother in front of him as a shield. "Kili!" Fili said as Kili let go.

"He was going to hit me," Kili defended.

Valaina chuckled and Thorin shook his head, a small smile on his face at his two nephews' joking around. "Come, we need to continue," he said as he began to lead the line of the company once more.

They walked up the mountain still and traveled along the rocky, cold top as they passed the snow covered peaked mountains. More often than not, they would come by a large patch of snow and a few snowballs would be thrown by whoever was there first. Several times Valaina caught Thorin almost, _almost _bending down to throw one at his nephews, but old Balin always started to talk with him.

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They began to walk along the path on the side of one of the mountains, the sky growing darker with rain filled clouds and the setting sun. Thunder began not too long after night had fallen, and then the storm came. The rain pelted the company and made the rocks slick and slippery as the path began to narrow. Thunder boomed overhead as lighting flashed. "Where in the devil did this storm come from?" Kili asked Valaina as they walked along the precarious path that led to a death drop below.

"How the hell would I know?!" she answered.

The large expanse of a valley below was so far down that Valaina could barely make out the large river. It seemed like a trickle of water at their height. She looked out across the expanse to the mountain over, the gap so wide and large. "Hey! Hold on!" Thorin called back to the group from his position at the front.

The company was close together to keep from losing one another and to be there in case one fell. Valaina walked in behind Kili who followed Fili. She noticed that the dwarves walked together with their brothers, each keeping a close eye on one another. Bilbo walked in front of Dwalin and seemed like he was out of his mind in fright. Suddenly, Bilbo slipped. Dwalin promptly grabbed the yelling hobbit. "Bilbo!" Valaina called and started to move toward him when Kili stopped her.

"They've got him!" he said as he held Valaina back. "They've got him."

A roar like sound reached the elleth's ears. "That was not thunder," she said in fright as something among the mountains moved a bit.

"We must find shelter!" Thorin yelled.

"No shit!" Valaina yelled back.

"Look out!" Dwalin yelled from the back.

"Holy-" Valaina started.

All the dwarves looked up and saw a large rock collide with the wall above them, rocks, pebbles, and large boulders falling all around them. "Look out, brother!" Gloin yelled to Oin.

"Hold on!" Kili yelled out.

Valaina pushed herself up against the mountain wall as an avalanche of rock fell about them. She felt an arm wrap around her protectively as the company shielded themselves against the wall to avoid the falling rocks. As the rocks past she looked behind her and saw Kili with a cheeky smile on his face. "Wouldn't want our little sister to fall off the mountain, would we?" he asked her.

"Shut up," she said even though she was smiling slightly.

"This is no thunderstorm," Balin said from the back. "It's a thunder-battle!"

Valaina looked up and saw a stone giant as big, if not a bit bigger, than the mountains around them rear up from the side of one of the far mountains. It looked like it had just woken up as it stood up, grabbed a large chunk of the mountain next to it. "Look!" Balin yelled and pointed at it.

"Well, bless me," Bofur said as he moved forward to get a better look. "The legends are true! Giants! Stone-giants!"

The stone giant threw the rock with slow speed, the large giant was probably moving very fast considering its height, but to the company, it was slow. The rock, or the part of the mountain, sailed through the air and past the company to hit another stone-giant that was right behind them. The stone-giant yelled out as the piece of the mountain hit its face. "Take cover, you fool!" Thorin yelled at Bofur to which someone pulled the dwarf back.

"Hold on!" someone yelled out as the rock mountain path they were on started to move.

"What's happening?" Kili asked.

"We're on a stone-giant!" Valaina yelled at the two.

"Kili, grab my hand!" Fili yelled at his brother.

The stone-giant spilt a path between the company and right between Fili and Kili. Suddenly, the rock Kili was standing on started to crumble away. "No, don't!" Valaina yelled as she pulled him backward toward the rest of their half of the company away from Fili and Thorin's half.

"Kili!" Thorin and Fili yelled.

"Hold on!" Valaina said to those she was with as their stone giant began to stand. "Kili, god damn it!"

The dwarf prince finally got out of his shock as the stone-giant they were on was suddenly hit by another stone-giant sending their back against the mountain. Valaina saw Thorin's stone-giant knee smash back into the mountain path. Those on the knee scrambled off quickly before the giant began to move away. "They're safe!" she told the others. "They've made it across!"

"Now we have to find a way across!" Dwalin yelled back. "Hold on tight! It's about to get rough!"

"We already are!"

"Valaina, Kili, look out!" Ori yelled as a large piece of the stone-giant's knee above Kili and Valaina began to fall.

Valaina looked up and reacted quickly. She found a hold in the rock behind her with one hand, grabbed Kili with her free, and moved him closer to the rest of the company on the other side of the small jut they were on, tearing the skin of her hand holding the rock in the process. Dwalin grabbed hold of him as he steadied himself against the stone-giant. "Valaina!" he and Dwalin yelled out.

The elleth turned and moved quickly and made it just before the rock broke away. She clutched the rock wall between to Kili and Dwalin. "I'm here!" she said. "I wouldn't want to miss this fun ride!"

"Is it really necessary to joke around right now?" Kili said back.

"Nope, not at all!"

Suddenly, another piece of a mountain came flying through the air and knocked off their stone-giant's head. The giant began to fall backward slowly, the knee rocking back and forward. "This isn't going to be good," Valaina said to Kili.

"What makes you say that?" he asked sarcastically. "It's not like the mountain wall is coming closer!"

The knee passed by Thorin's company, their faces terrified for the rest of the company. "Jump!" Thorin yelled to them, but they couldn't as the knee passed by quickly.

"Hold on! Hold on!" Dwalin shouted.

"We are, damn it!" Valaina called back.

Suddenly, the knee stopped moving by and started moving closer to the stone wall, a large jut in the mountain looked like it just might impale them. But Valaina noticed that it wasn't going to impale the company where Bilbo was, but instead where Kili was. "Kili, move," Valaina said.

"What? How the am I supposed to do that?" he yelled back.

"Grab my hand, now!"

Kili looked at the jut in the wall just then. He cursed in dwarvish under his breath before grabbing Valaina's hand. She pulled him past her and switched placed. "Valaina," he yelled just as she let go.

The stone-giant's knee crashed into the wall, the ledge they were on hitting the mountain side just right to send the dwarves tumbling onto the solid mountain in a heap. "No!" Thorin shouted. "No!"

Valaina felt something scrape her side as she clung to the stone-giant's knee, unable to move as she was trapped between the wall and the giant. As the giant moved away Valaina was freed, but the knee began to crumble on her. She jumped toward the wall, but couldn't grab hold of it. "Did she make it?!" Balin yelled out. "Valaina?!"

Valaina couldn't answer as she began sliding down the wall, her arms, legs, and hands getting torn up by the wall. She suddenly grabbed caught hold of a small hand hold and stopped her downward descent. She watched the stone-giant fall to the valley below, but that was all that fell.  
"It's alright!" she sighed as she heard Gloin's voice yell out, and she rested her head against the wall. "They're alive!"

She had fallen a good ways down the wall as she looked up. "Where's Bilbo? Where's the hobbit?" she heard Bofur's voice, and then she saw Bilbo clinging to the edge.

"Bilbo!" she shouted and began to make her way back up as best as she could between the rain and now blood slicked rocks.

"Bilbo, grab my hand!" Bofur called out.

"Bilbo, come on!" Ori yelled.

Thorin yelled out, "Grab him!" as the hobbit slipped a bit.

"Ori, be careful!" called Dori to his brother.

"Take it!" called Ori as he held his hand down to Bilbo.

But Bilbo couldn't reach. "I've got you lad!" Dwalin said as he held Ori still.

"Grab on! Grab on!"

Someone jumped down to the small ledge and helped heave the hobbit up. But suddenly, they slipped. "Thorin!" Valaina heard Kili and Fili yell out to their uncle.

She saw Thorin dangling by the grasp he had on the wall. He looked down and back up and down again. The grip Dwalin had on Thorin slipped, and Thorin began to fall. Valaina growled and shifted before surging up in a leap. She caught Thorin on her shoulder, the dwarf grasping her white fur painfully, but it didn't matter as Valaina's claws dug into the mountain side and found more footholds than possible. Her legs were stained red with blood as where her paws. "I've got you," she said with a rumbling growl.

"Valaina! What in Durin's name are you doing here?" Thorin asked in a harsh voice.

"Oh, just chilling on the side of the mountain," she said before turning her head halfway in a glare at him. "Saving your ass, that's what I'm doing. Now, if you don't mind just hold on tight and I'll get you back up onto that ledge. As soon as we are in reach, grab hold of it and don't let go."

"Right," Thorin huffed, "as if I want to let go again."

Valaina climbed awkwardly upwards, and soon Thorin came within reaching distance of the ledge. "Uncle!" Kili and Fili shouted as Dwalin grabbed hold of Thorin.

Thorin let go of Valaina and turned to the ledge. He was hoisted up by Dwalin, and they both fell backward in a huff. "Come on, lad! Up you get!" Gloin said as Thorin stood.

"I thought we lost our burglar," Dwalin said.

"He's been lost ever since he left home," Thorin said harshly, "He should have never come. He has no place amongst us."

Thorin began to walk into a cave, but stopped outside. "Dwalin," he said and motioned inside.

The dwarf gave a nod and followed while Fili was attempting to help Bombur up. Valaina still clung to the ledge as she shifted back, her hands now torn all over. "It's alright," she grumbled as she made her way up, "I'll be fine on the side of the mountain."

"Kili, where's Valaina?" Fili asked after he had helped Bombur up and the rest of the dwarves, plus a hobbit, went inside.

"Valaina?" Kili called as he looked around.

A blood covered hand appeared on the ledge and was followed by another. "Valaina!" the brothers shouted as they quickly made their way over to the elleth.

"You should check out this view," she said as they helped her up onto the ledge where they promptly fell back to the ground against the solid wall. "It's quite the drop."

"What in Durin's name," Fili started, "were you doing on the side of the mountain?"

"She saved my," Kili said as he and his brother stood up and helped Valaina up, "twice now in one night."

Valaina gave a halfhearted smile. "That's what I do," she said and winced as she walked. "After you."

"I'll go first then," Fili said with a shake of his head.

"After _you_," added Kili with a motion of his hand.

"Fine," she grumbled and followed the blonde dwarf inside the cave.


	16. Chapter 16: Captured

Chapter 16: Captured

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**A/N: So, ****_Seriya Silvermist _****pointed out that maybe I should do a story of one shots of Valaina's adventures before ****_The Hobbit _****and ****_Lord of the Rings_****. I've been thinking, and thought that instead of a ton of one shots thrown together, I was thinking of doing a pre-Hobbit story to give the full detail of her past up to ****_Eärlindë_****. The time in between ****_Eärlindë _****and ****_Scarlet Eyes _****will be written in ****_Eärlindë_****, so I'd be making a Trilogy. Please tell me if you would all like that, just to past the time in between ****_The Hobbit _****and ****_The Desolation of Smaug_****. Need to do something in between :) But, I need the input of my awesome readers before I put up the next chapter. I know, I'm horrible, but I really need a few reader's inputs please! This way we won't loose site of the story (if I can keep it at a good pace XD).**

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The dwarves were already setting up their bed rolls and what not by the time the three entered. "Get some sleep," Thorin said to the company. "We start at first light."

"Don't tell Valaina that," someone murmured, Valaina was sure it was Ori.

Valaina leaned against the wall at the entrance, her legs and arms on fire. "By my beard," Dwalin said as he caught sight of the elleth, "what happened to you?"

"I got smashed into the mountain and then fell down it," she growled as she took her small pack off and dropped it. "What else do you think happened?"

Valaina removed her dual blades and daggers from her back before she undid her dark brown leather corset vest and placed them next on the ground next to her before she removed her light brown tunic slowly. The white undershirt was bloodied in several spots as she placed the tunic next to her. "What are you doing?" Fili asked in shock as Valaina started to remove her white undershirt.

"Going to fix my cuts," she said and winced as she removed her shirt leaving her in her trousers, a binding over her chest, and bra (much like a sports bra over a regular one). "Holy…"

Her arms looked worse than when she had her tunic on, but her stomach sported several cuts as well including a sharp piece of a thin stone. Fili and Kili looked at her in shock as she paused as well to look at her stomach, though they were more surprised that the elleth had hard core muscle on her torso rather than a soft, skinny complexion of a normal she-elf. Valaina had the soft, feminine curves without a doubt. But instead of a smooth, flat stomach with a sporty, lean look and a few muscles like the dwarves had originally thought, Valaina sported more muscle from her hours of training in combat, horse riding, and as a wolf. She was, without a doubt, stronger than they had anticipated and in far better shape than the dwarves had thought. Yet, even with her muscle and soft curves, Valaina still held the beauty of a woman about her like all elves did. She was a pretty elleth with the warrior look about her. But one thing about the elleth that kept the dwarves from looking away was the long, slowly fading scar across her torso from her right shoulder to her left hip. Its mark was jagged and several other deep, jagged scars surrounded the one long scar. "Hold this," she said as she shoved her shirt into Fili's arms.

"She's not shy," Fili muttered to his brother.

"I'm right here, you know," Valaina said. "And no, I'm not really. When you constantly change shapes and only have fur as a cover sometimes, you tend to become less shy."

"Where did you get those?" Kili asked cautiously.

Several gasps were heard as Valaina yanked the rock shard from her side as if it where nothing and tossed it aside. She looked up and caught nearly the whole company looking at her. "It was a while back," she sighed as she took her shirt from Fili, drew a dagger from her hip and cut up a few strips of the shirt and began to gently clean off her stomach, "It was a good hundred years ago. I was running from some Mirkwood elves for several days when I made my way out of the forest. I didn't shift into a wolf as I ran for fear they might even try to kill me then. They were just trying to catch me, but no way in hell was I about to let them. That was the first time I laid eyes on the Lonely Mountain at the same time, ironically enough, Thranduil was going to pay homage to Thror. I was a good mile away from him and his guard, yet they saw me. He sent two of his guard after me, both riding horses. Next thing I know I see a mace coming at me. I barely had time to dodge the blow for my head, but it caught me here," Valaina paused and trailed the scar from her left hip to her right shoulder.

"What did you do? How'd you get away?" Bofur asked as the dwarves continued to set up camp and listen to the elleth.

"I didn't stop and think that perhaps I'd bleed out from this. All I could think of was to get away. I cut the saddle on the horse and stole it as the elf fell to the ground. Only when I finally stopped by a river twenty minutes later did I realize that I was bleeding out. I wasn't thinking straight as I came back to Mirkwood. I left the horse, shifted, and ran through it, not knowing where I was going but desperately looking for help. That was when Radagast found me half dead next to the river. He told me that it was a miracle that I was still living with the amount of blood I had lost. Of course, I had passed out and was healing slowly. They still haven't faded, but according to Radagast they will eventually," she said as she moved to clean her arms of blood.

"They must have been deep," Fili said quietly.

Valaina ran a finger across the large scar. "Radagast said after he had managed to clean the blood off and examine the wounds better that some points on my chest he could see tiny hints of my bone. I had just barely survived and that was thanks to the Rage I had in me. It healed the minor cuts and was starting to close the easier ones as I ran, keeping me alive but barely. He also said that my fur was so thick that it also helped to staunch the blood flow a bit. I've had many close calls, but that was the closest one I have ever had and it was with my kin. It is also the number one reason I hate Thranduil."

"That makes two of us," Thorin growled from his side of the cave. "Finish wrapping yourself up and get a shirt on for Mahal's sake."

Valaina shook her head at Thorin, wondering if she actually made the dwarf uncomfortable for once. The rest of the dwarves had finished setting up for the night including the two brothers, though they all stole glances at the elleth every now and then as she wrapped her arms up in a bandage before doing the same for her stomach. She finally put on her spare shirt and tunic before she tied on her leather vest corset once more. She then used the rest of her undershirt to clean off her legs as they were only scraped up in a few places. Valaina then wrapped up her hands before tossing everything that had been bloodied and torn into the pack before she then tossed the pack out of the cave down into the valley below, no longer needing it. She strapped her blade's sheathes back on and looked around. Most of the dwarves had already begun to fall asleep except for the two brothers that were near the entrance, Bofur, Thorin, and Dwalin. Fili motioned next to himself. "Over here," he said.

Valaina moved over to the two brothers and sat down next to them with a sigh. "You look tired," Fili commented.

"Of course she is! She saved my life twice today, saved Thorin, and nearly got herself killed in the process," Kili defended Valaina from his position on the floor as he laid down. "I'd be tired too."

Valaina smiled as she laid down as well and looked up at the ceiling. "I just need an hour or two and I'll be fine," she said as she closed her eyes.

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She got her two hours, if not three, and was completely healed up. She was sleeping soundly, until she heard Bofur's voice. "Where do you think you're going?"

Immediately, she was sitting up with her dual blades at the ready scaring the living daylights out of Bofur and Bilbo. "Do _not _do that," Bofur said.

"Sorry," Valaina whispered. "Habit."

She sheathed her blades and sat against the wall. "Back to Rivendell," Bilbo said sharply.

"Here we go," Valaina muttered.

"You can't turn back now, eh? You're part of the company. You're one of us," Bofur said.

"I'm not, though, am I?" Bilbo retorted.

"Only if you think like that," Valaina mumbled.

"I'm not talking to you, Valaina," Bilbo countered. "Thorin said I should never have come and he was right. I'm not a Took, I'm a Baggins. I don't know what I was thinking."

"Thorin was just angry," Valaina defended Thorin as she caught his opened eyes. "You've helped us quite a bit. You just need to prove yourself to him."

"I should never have run out my door. And don't say I'm wrong, Valaina. You know it as well."

"You're homesick. I understand," Bofur said.

"No, you don't. You don't understand. None of you do!" Bilbo started. "You're dwarves. You're used to this life. To living on the road, never settling in one place, not belonging anywhere!"

Bofur's face fell at the hobbit's words, and Valaina quickly jumped to her feet, Kili and Fili stirring slightly at the soft thump. "Bilbo!" she whispered fiercely.

"And what about you!" Bilbo said turning to Valaina now. "You don't even know what a home is! You never had one!"

Valaina's eyes turned from anger to pain in a flash. "Oh, I am sorry. I didn't-" Bilbo started.

"No, you're right," Bofur said sadly. "We don't belong anywhere."

"You should go, Bilbo," she said harshly and even Thorin cringed back at the ice in her words. "You've done enough harm now."

"Valaina, I swear I didn't mean any harm in it."

"No," she said, Thorin, Bofur, and Bilbo flinching at the sharp, icy words, "you don't know what you said."

"I wish you all the luck in the world," Bofur continued as he clasped the hobbit gently on the shoulder. "I really do."

Bilbo returned the gesture and looked to Valaina, expecting some kind of remark from her but found none. "What's that?" Bofur asked as he saw a blue light shining from Bilbo's scabbard.

Valaina quickly drew one of her blades and the soft blue glow lit up her face before she sheathed her blade again. Bilbo looked up from his blade with a look of fright. "Orcs," Valaina growled softly.

The sand on the ground began to move and then fell as grooves in the sand where made. The soft sound of metal groaning against metal reached Valaina and Thorin's ears. "Wake up," Thorin yelled and the company jolted. "Wake up!"

The company was wide awake at the second yell. "Whoa!" Bofur yelled and the floors suddenly turned downwards, dumping the company down a rocky tunnel like chute.

Kili and Fili clung to each other as they went down as did the other dwarves. They yelled as they slid down the rocky tunnel chute, no longer tired at all and quite alarmed as they slid down, sliding up the wall as some points. They fell out of a hole into a wooden claw like catch, Bombur the last of the dwarves to fall on top of the dog pile, the dwarves groaning from each added weight. Bilbo fell on his back at the side of the dog pile, and then Valaina fell across Kili's back. "Thank Durin that you're as light as a pillow, Valaina," Kili said with a slight groan of pain.

Valaina shook her head and turned to look at Kili's turned head as he laid on his stomach across his brother's back. "Would you two move?" Fili said as he turned his own head to look at Kili and Valaina. "You may be light, Valaina, but Kili isn't!"

"Hey! I am lighter than Bombur and Dwalin!" Kili defended and Valaina had to smile at the two brother's bickering in the odd situation they were now in.

"But that doesn't mean you're as light as an elf!"

"Guys, stop moving for a moment," Valaina said as she attempted to stand, but Kili and Fili where to busy trying to move as well. "I can get up if you hold still!"

"Look out! Look out!" Ori yelled as goblins rushed them.

The brothers finally paused in their movements long enough for Valaina to jump off of the dwarves as they began to attempt to stand. The goblins grabbed hold of many of them and tried to take their weapons in the process. They put up a fight, but they had been surprised by the goblins and were currently trapped. "Get away!" Dori yelled as he was yanking his arms free of a goblin.

"Filthy scum!" called out Gloin as the goblins started to push them along the line.

Dwalin growled at them. "Get back!"

The dwarves fought as best as they could, several goblins going over the edge as they did so. A goblin grabbed hold of Valaina's arm and she snarled in anger. "Don't you dare," she growled as she turned and sliced the goblin's neck open.

"An elf-witch!" one goblin growled in joy. "We can have-"

He didn't finish as Valaina kicked him hard in the chest which sent the goblin flying backward into four others and over the edge. She drew her dual blades and began twirled them dangerously, but the goblins came still as their number grew. "Valaina, behind you!" Kili yelled out as he knocked another goblin over the side, but the pause cost him as two goblins tackled the dwarf prince. "Get off you, you filth!"

Valaina back thrust one of her blades into an oncoming goblin before turning and killing a few more. She fought as best as she could, but they were overwhelming and the dwarves were losing the battle. A goblin knocked her on the side of the head, dazing her long enough for them to take her dual blades and grab her. "You'll pay for this!" Gloin and Valaina yelled at the goblins.

They began to drag her along with the fighting dwarves across crude wood bridges. "Alright, alright! Don't push!" Dori yelled at them as they continued to be pushed across the bridge.

"Are you kidding me?" Valaina growled as she kicked another goblin over the edge. "I dare you! See what happens!"

"Get off me! Get your hands off me!" Dwalin shouted. "Get off me!"

"Let go of us, you filth!" Kili yelled out as well.

"Get off me, scum!" added Fili.

"Take your hands off me!" Valaina growled as she ripped her arm out from a goblin and punched another in the face sending it flying off the side.

Three more came and grabbed her. She fought viciously as they drug her away with the dwarves. "Let go of her!" Kili shouted.

"Stop that!" cried Ori as the goblin pushed him onward next to Dori.

Valaina twisted and smashed a goblin holding her shoulders into a wall, a sickening crunch coming from the impact as the back of the goblin broke in several places. She turned her eyes up at the goblins as they seemed to stop for a second to stare at the raging red eyes. She was pissed. But it was only for a second, and soon they were being shoved along the way once more. Valaina shouted in elvish at them as they were crossing another open bridge. She stopped and shoved another one off the side and quickly turned to kicked the face of another goblin that promptly fell into his comrade before they both tumbled off the side. Two more grabbed Valaina once more and she growled again. "This one's a fighter!" one growled in excitement,

"You want to see how much of a fight I can put up?" she snarled and the dwarves in front of her turned to look back, the procession stopping as the elleth continued to make the capture difficult. "I'll show you then."

She pushed off from the ground and slammed the goblin on her right into a rock smashing its head with her momentum. Valaina quickly jumped up and twisted before kicking the goblin on her left in the stomach and stabbing it with its own knife. Two more replaced those. "Valaina, you can't keep fighting them," Dori yelled at her. "There are too many!"

"Lass, just stop!" Dwalin yelled out. "You can't win!"

"Really now? Just watch me!" she counted as she continued to fight with everything she had as her Rage began to build up inside her.

"Remind me to never get on her bad side," Kili said to those around him to which they responded in agreement.

Valaina kicked away a goblin and promptly dazed another before she grabbed the back of its head with her right hand and brought it down against the rocky ground, a loud crack resounding as the goblin's skull was smashed in. The dwarves gave a resounding "oo" as they flinched back. Two goblins attempted to grab Valaina once more, but the elleth wasn't having it, at least not without a fight. "Damn it, let go!" she growled as the goblins thrust her arms painfully behind her back, forcing her to be shoved forward along with the dwarves.

"Valaina, it's no use," Kili said as she was continually pushed forward up next to the dwarf princes.

"I know," she growled and looked at the dwarf, her irises glowing a blood red with anger and excitement. "But that doesn't mean I can still have some fun."

"You mean fighting," Fili said from behind them.

"More or less," she said. "These bastards are in for it now."

"Valaina," Kili and Fili said at the same time.

"What?"

"Try not to do anything too stupid," Kili said sternly.

"We can't lose our little sister now, can we?" added Fili.

Valaina glared at the two before the three gave a small smile. "I'll try," she sighed before giving them a hard look, "as long as my _brothers _do the same."

The three exchanged a few looks before they were pushed along the way. "What do you mean when you call me your 'little sister'?" Valaina asked suddenly.

"Well, we see you as a sort of sister to us," Kili started to explain.

"And we don't care if you're older than us, we are still calling you our little sister," added Fili.

"As long as you don't mind."

Valaina thought about it for a second and then gave a small smile. "No," she said as she looked at both of the dwarves, "I don't mind at all."

"Good because we weren't about to stop calling you our little sister anyway," Fili said with a sharp nod.


	17. Chapter 17: A Pissed Off Lycan

Chapter 17: A Pissed Off Lycan

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**A/N: So, I will be writing a prequel to the prequel XD Okay, I went backwards with the fan fics, but hey! I'm writing them now XD So, this chapter was originally one large chapter, but then I got this awesome idea that Valaina needs a little beating because she may get her ass kicked here and there, but she needs a little ego check sometimes XD And, it also adds a bit to her odd adventures and what happens when she lets her anger get the better of her. I will say that I am a cruel person. I admit it. Also, some useless bit of information that I just love sharing about (lol haha...okay...), have have written, so far 124 pages in word, and that doesn't include the author notes, review answers, or thanks (I do that here). So, enough of my rambling! On we go!**

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**Thanks for Favoriting:**_  
Scribe of Erebor_

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** Seriya Silvermist (Ch. 15): **Lol, it's a great phrase XD And thanks! I also love your pun there XD I actually stopped and reread it twice and was like wait, that's a pun! Oh, lol...blonde moment (and I'm blonde XD)

** Seriya Silvermist (Ch. 16):** I loved it! And thanks, I will be writing it after we come to the end of _The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. _I'd use the actual book, but I really liked the first movie and I know I'll love the second. It's worth the wait and, quite frankly, I don't have the book and I've never read it. I think I'll just stick with the movies XD

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The company soon entered the crude wooden goblin city built in the mountain. Valaina snarled, her red eyes flashing with hate as the goblins pushed them forward. Other goblins throughout the city jeered and taunted the company which only made Valaina grow angrier by the minute. They were brought to an extremely tall, fat, and ugly goblin with a large, flapping piece of fat for a beard. He sat on a throne much too small for him with a crown of bone also too small for his large, round head. The larger weapons of the dwarves were quickly tossed into a pile off to the side of the captured group including Valaina's own dual blades, but not her daggers. The goblins stopped and held the dwarves as well as, finally, an unmoving and quite Valaina as the goblin king stepped down from his tiny throne, crushing the goblins under his large foot as he moved to stand in front of the captured dwarves. "Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom?" he asked. "Spies? Thieves? Assassins?" his voice cracked horribly, yet the dwarves were silent.

Valaina stood behind the dwarves, and gave the goblin king her own glare along with the seething dwarves. "Dwarves, your Malevolence," one goblin in front of Kili said.

"Dwarves?" the goblin king asked in shock.

"Yes dwarves. Deaf dumbass…" Valaina snarled under her breath.

"Shut up," Kili whispered over his shoulder to which Valaina gave a snort and a huff as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Fine."

"We found them on the front porch," the goblin continued.

"Well don't just stand there! Search them!" the goblin king roared as the goblins jumped to search the dwarves. "Every crack, every crevice."

The goblin began to search the dwarves, yet those holding Valaina didn't dare for fear of her blazing red eyes and the fight she would put up. They had seen the elleth send many of their own kind over the edges of the bridges. They had also bore witness to when the elleth continually smashed their comrades against the walls and rocks, breaking bones and killing goblin after goblin as she resisted capture. Valaina watched as the dwarves didn't move when the goblins searched them, though Dwalin and Gloin resisted a bit along with Thorin. They all glared at the goblin king with hate. To Valaina's shock, even Dwalin stilled at Thorin's glance as the dwarves were searched. She gave a growl as one goblin came to close to her, and it stepped back in fright. "Back off," she snarled to it.

"What are you doing in these parts? Speak!" the goblin king continued in the deafening silence.

Yet, the dwarves said nothing to the goblin king, as they glared at him. It took every fiber of Valaina's being to not utter another growl of hate as a few of the goblins moved closer to her. Instead, she turned her killing glare on them and they stopped, the red eyes boring into them. "Very well. If they will not talk, we'll make them squawk!" the goblin king yelled out to the goblins who erupted into cheers. "Bring up the mangler! Bring up the bonebreaker! Start with the youngest."

The goblin king pointed to Ori with his sausage of a finger, the little dwarf terrified now of what was going to happen to him. His eyes widened in fright as the goblins around him made to take Ori. The young dwarf looked back for one of his brothers, and the fear in his eyes sent Valaina over the edge. "Don't you dare touch him!" she snarled at the goblins.

"What's this?" the goblin king said in shock as the goblins parted for Valaina, moving the dwarves with them as they did so. "A she-elf in the company of _dwarves_? This is an odd surprise!"

Valaina growled her icy red glare boring into the goblin king as she stood in front of the group ready to attack if given the chance. "She was with them, your Malevolence," the same goblin said. "She's a fighter, and we could have fun with her."

Valaina drew her arm back and punched the living daylights out of the goblin, sending the beast flying to the other side of the platform. "Say another word and I'll kill you," she growled to the goblin and turned to the one that was creeping up on Ori to grab the young dwarf. "Touch him. I dare you," she snarled in a low tone and the goblin back off into the ranks.

The goblin king laughed, enjoying this turn of events. "So she is," he said. "Who are you? Speak, now, _she-elf_!"

"Go jump of a cliff, fat ass," Valaina said.

The king glared at her. "Well then, instead of starting with the youngest," he said with a hard glare as he moved to sit back into his tiny throne, "we'll start with you then since you jumped to insult me, a king in my own domain."

"Well, I'm sorry," she said and gave a mock bow, "I thought you were just the fat ass pig being fed for the feast where you'd be roasted and placed on a table with an apple in your mouth. My mistake."

"I've had enough of you! Get her!" the goblin king yelled out in fury.

Some of the goblins not holding the dwarves rushed forward wielding whips. One whip grabbed onto Valaina's wrist, slicing open the skin on it before it retreated back to its owner. Valaina threw up her arms to shield her face as another came at her from the side, cutting into her arms. She grabbed the whip with her bare hand, small shards of rocks cutting into her palm as she did so, and pulled the goblin toward her. She twisted the whip around the goblin's neck and held it as she turned, using the goblin as a defense while strangling it in the process. She finally let go, throwing the dead goblin at another and watched as they both went over the side, the open platform making it easier to throw them off the edge.

A larger goblin came at her bringing its whip down onto Valaina's side, the rock shards cutting her cheek and arm as she tried to dodge the blow. She stepped forward and punched the goblin's neck, successfully cutting off its air supply before she grabbed the dagger on her hip with her left hand and the goblin's head with her right. She thrust the goblin's head down onto the platform, going down on her right knee as she did so, and then stabbed the goblin's face with the dagger in her left hand. She stood up in a swift motion and twirled back around to face the oncoming goblins.

Another large goblin grabbed her arm and threw her to the ground. She rolled onto her shoulder and popped back up onto her feet sliding backward a bit only to have her arms grabbed by two goblins. A third kicked the back of her legs and forced her onto her knees at the same time as another whip came across her back, the minor cuts already healed with her Rage. They held her there as the goblin king laughed. "Such entertainment from a she-elf," he cackled. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Let go of me!" she growled.

A goblin kicked her chest, and sent Valaina sprawling onto the platform. She rolled to a stop on her stomach right in front of Kili. The goblins held the dwarves, jeering and taunting Valaina as the elleth tried to regain her breath. "Valaina," she heard her name called by several of the dwarves.

"Come on! Get up, get up," Kili said to her.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Valaina heard Fili yell out.

She shook her head and began to stand when a foot connected with her stomach and sent her rolling away from the dwarves. She moved slightly as she gasped for breath, all the wind knocked out of her from the blow. "So, will you speak now?" the goblin king asked as the goblins became quiet.

Valaina didn't groan in pain, nor did she wince as she slowly got up on all fours and then onto one knee painfully. A throbbing pain spread throughout her stomach as she clutched it with her arm before she turned her head upward to glare at the goblin king with her blood red eyes. "Go to hell, you bastard," she growled at the goblin king as a few of the goblins gasped.

He swung his skull scepter and it connected with her chest. She was sent backward on the platform a bit, the air knocked out of her once more as she rolled onto her stomach, her back to the goblin king. "Leave her alone!" Dwalin yelled out.

Valaina was breathing hard as she got onto all fours once more, a hand on her aching chest. "Is that the best you've got?" she taunted with her heaving breathing. "It's pretty pathetic if you ask me."

"Valaina, stop," Kili begged. "Please!"

"Don't keep fighting them," joined Fili.

"You'll get yourself kill, lass! Just stop!" Dwalin tried to reason with Valaina as well, but the elleth wasn't going to have it.

She looked up at the two brothers, a smirk on her face. The few cuts that had appeared on her face from her being sent across the platform several times now bled slightly, the little red droplets sliding down the side of her face in a slow manner. The dwarves watched as the cuts stopped their bleeding and shrank back until they disappeared completely from view, nothing left from the cuts. "You fight like a bunch of cowards!" she growled to the goblins, her taunt enraging them.

"So, you think that is all we got," the goblin king glowered at Valaina. "Beat her! Break her! Crush her spirit!"

Four large goblins came at the fallen elleth. Valaina stood quickly, turned, and punched a goblin in the face breaking many of the bones in its face as her anger surged through her giving her strength to continue to fight. She fought against the goblins, but she was clearly outnumbered and outmatched at the present moment in her condition. A fist connected with her stomach making her lose her balance, and a foot kicked her in the side. She rolled across the platform and smacked painfully into one of the wood poles that held a large torch, the dwarves letting out a collected "oo" and flinching as something cracked sounding suspiciously like bone. Valaina laid against the post as she tried to regain her breath, a painful flare going throughout her back. Suddenly, another two cracks of bones sounded and Valaina let out a groan of pain as her bones shifted and healed back together, her soaring Rage healing her broken bones quickly and effortlessly. "So, she does feel pain," the goblin king laughed. "Let's see just how much she can stand, then!"

Valaina stirred and lifted her head slightly to look at the dwarves. They had pained, worried expressions on their faces including Thorin, much to Valaina's own shock. "Valaina," Kili said as he tried to move to help her, but his brother held him back.

"No, don't," Fili said quietly. "That's what they want us to do."

"They're going to kill her!"

"Wait! See that look in her eyes?"

The two brothers turned their worried and hurt gazes back to the elleth. Valaina looked up at them, her red eyes swirling in anger and different hues of red as she felt her Rage come up. "Well don't just stand there," the goblin king roared out, "break her!"

Valaina moved up onto one knee as the large goblins rushed her once more thinking they still had the advantage over the elleth. She snarled and surged forward, shifting as she did so. The goblins shrieked in surprise as the tall, rugged white wolf pinned the three large goblins to the ground. Valaina grabbed one and threw it off the ledge before ripping the other's head off and throwing the dead goblin off the ledge as well. She crushed the third in her jaws before throwing it away like it was a piece of trash as well. She turned back and several of the goblins had their whips out once more and began to whip Valaina. Her red blood stained her white fur as she fought back, ripping goblins apart here and there. She turned to grab another when she saw the goblin king's scepter come at her face and smash into her head sending Valaina backwards toward the dwarves.

She shifted as she hit the ground and rolled to a stop once more, her head reeling in pain as a large cut bled on her forehead. "So, this is the scarlet eyed wolf that so many fear," the goblin king boomed as he stood up from the platform. "You sure give a good fight, something we haven't seen in a long time. But, now you're broken so I have no more use for you."

"Get up, lass! Come on!" Dwalin yelled to Valaina.

But the elleth didn't move as her body needed a few moments to recover from the recent battering. Her forehead stopped bleeding as her Rage was surging throughout her, healing her as best as it could as she was half out of consciousness. "Valaina, come on!" Fili yelled out. "Get up!"

"Move, lass," said Gloin. "Let's go."

Kili looked like he was about to explode along with Fili as they struggled against the goblins. "Move you stupid elf!" Kili yelled out trying to test the elleth's patience with a bit of cursing and insulting. "Get up, damn it! Stop being a lazy ass she-elf for Mahal's sake!"

Valaina's eyes snapped open and she stirred slightly. "Don't rush me, damn it," she said in a hoarse voice.

"Let's go! Stop moving so damn slow and get up!"

Valaina sent Kili a glare from her spot on the ground, but when she saw the smirk on his face she couldn't help the small smile that appeared on hers. "I'm working on it," she growled low with a bit of pain as she rested her head on the ground for a moment longer. "Let's see you buy some time here. It's not exactly a walk in the park, you know."

"Time? For what?" Kili asked as he, too, dropped his voice to a whisper.

"To think of a way to get out of here, dumbass," she mumbled as she grimaced in pain from her sides. "Damn they kick hard."

"We'll kill her first. Slowly, painfully," the goblin king said with a pleased voice. But when none of the goblins moved to grab the slowly recovering elleth, the goblin king got angry. "Don't just stand there! Grab her!" he bellowed

"Shit…" Valaina said as she saw two goblins walk toward her. "I'm either screwed, or I just have some serious bad luck at the moment."


	18. Chapter 18: Enter Gandalf

Chapter 18: Enter Gandalf

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**A/N: So I had to split this chapter up into two. Sorry for the long wait, but I've really wanted to do this scene as best as I can and elaborate on Valaina's fight scenes. I also want to stick her with Kili and Fili when they are fighting because I think that it would be a ****_very _****interesting fight and flight. We'll see. I think it is turning out pretty dang good as well. Also, ****_WARNING: Valaina's sailor mouth will come into play in this chapter! _****Though, I feel it is understandable XD**

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"No! Valaina, get up!" Fili yelled out.

Kili and Fili finally managed to get out of the hold of the goblins, being more of a fight than the other dwarves. They grabbed Valaina and helped the elleth up on her feet. Kili stood in front of Valaina as Fili steadied her before they pulled her back toward the company. Kili positioned himself in front of Valaina as he stood next to Ori while Fili held Valaina's shoulder to keep the elleth from falling as she was slowly regaining her strength. "_We _have you this time," the blonde dwarf smiled at Valaina as he referenced the several times the elleth had saved his brother.

Valaina rested her head on Kili's shoulder and closed her eyes. "If anyone asks, I'll deny it," she mumbled into his shoulder, "but that fucking _hurt!_"

"It looked like it hurt," Fili said.

"We didn't think you'd last much longer," added Kili.

"Just give me a moment and I'll be…what? Hey! Thanks for the confidence!" Valaina said as she gave a one-eyed glare at Fili.

"You may not have a moment, Valaina," Kili said as Valaina felt the dwarf stiffen.

"You really pissed him off," his brother added.

"He started it," she mumbled into his shoulder. "Big, fat, mother…" she trailed off into a large string of profanities to which Kili and Fili attempted to hide their chuckles to no avail.

"She's worse than you, Fili, when you stubbed your toe on that tree," Kili commented.

"Not as bad as you, Kili, when you _ran _fast first into that same tree," added Fili.

"This is no laughing matter, you two!" Gloin reprimanded them.

That didn't help the brother's cause at all as they struggled to hold back the inappropriate laughter. "I blame you, Valaina," Fili said.

"I second that," added Kili.

Valaina waved a hand weakly at the dwarf. "Whatever…" she mumbled.

"Lass, are you trying to kill yourself?" Dwalin asked as he clapped Valaina's bruised up shoulder.

Valaina hissed in pain, Kili's shoulder hiding her expression. "No," she said through clenched teeth, "not exactly."

"It sure looked like it."

"Shut up…" she said as she began to feel strength return to her.

"Is the little puppy hiding behind the dwarves now?" the goblin king roared up. "And she says we are cowards!"

Valaina's head snapped up, her red eyes glaring at the goblin king. She stood up on her own and began to move toward the king, a growl erupting from her throat as she did so. Kili's arm shot out and blocked Valaina from moving any further as Fili grabbed the lycan's arm gently. "You bastard!" she growled at the king. "Come over here and I'll show just how much of a _puppy_ I can be!"

Dwalin had a hand on his face, his elbow propped up on his arm that was crossed over his chest, as he shook his head in disbelief and slight agitation. "Don't do this again," he muttered. "For the love of Mahal, please don't!"

"Oh? You want to be beaten again? I can make that happen," the goblin king growled in delight as he looked to his goblin audience.

Fili's grip on Valaina's arm tightened, and another hand shot out and held Valaina's shoulder. She whipped around to face Gloin, the dwarf shaking his head. "It's not worth it, lass," he said. "Don't you go back out there just to be beaten left and right again."

"I will _not _stand around and be insulted by some _fat ass_!" she snarled as she turned her gaze back to the goblin king.

"She's got more anger in her than you do, Dwalin," Balin said to his brother.

"That she does," agreed Dwalin.

"What are you standing around for you lazy mutts?" the goblin king yelled out again. "Get her! Bring her out and kill her!"

Valaina growled as a goblin's hand grabbed her free shoulder, the goblins scrambling to grab the elleth. She turned, grabbed the arm and twisted it painfully before kicking the goblin and sending it to its knees. She took its arm and brought it down on her raised knee, snapping the arm in two at the elbow. The goblin cried out in pain as Valaina tossed its arm back at it. The goblin jumped up and ran, stumbled in pain, and then fell off the side of the bridge. "Grab her!" the goblin king roared.

"Wait!" Thorin yelled from his position next to Dwalin as he strode forward.

"It looks like Uncle has finally had enough," Fili said.

"Took him long enough," Valaina growled.

"Well, well, well! Look who it is! Thorin, son of Thran, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain!" the goblin king mocked bowed. "Oh, but I'm forgetting. You don't have a mountain. And you're not a king which makes you nobody, really. I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just a head, nothing attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak. An old enemy of yours. The pale orc, astride a white warg."

"Azog the defiler was destroyed," Thorin growled. "He was slain in battle long ago!"

"So you think his defiling days are done, do you?" the goblin king chuckled and turned to a tiny messenger goblin. Send word to the pale orc. Tell him I have found his prize."

"If you insult him one more time," Valaina growled and didn't finish.

"Valaina, shut up!" Kili said as Fili clamped a hand over the elleth's mouth to keep her from getting into any more trouble.

Suddenly, the goblins tried to swarm on Valaina and the dwarves as the contraptions the goblin king called for began to make their way over. She fought them once more, many tumbling off the side. The dwarves were struggling as well when the goblin king began to sing. "You piece of shit, shut the hell up!" Valaina snarled at the king to which he sang louder.

A goblin that had been examining Thorin's sword had barely unsheathed it when it tossed it down in fright as if the sword had burned him. The goblin king scrambled back into his throne as if to get away from the blade. "I know that sword! It is the globin-cleaver! The Biter!" the goblin king yelled as the goblins began to beat and whip the dwarves, some losing their balance in the process as they tried to dodge the blows. "The blade that slashed a thousand necks! Slash them! Beat them! Kill them! Kill them all!"

One of the larger goblins moved and grabbed the elleth. Valaina twisted and punched the goblin in its gut before promptly following the punch up with a kick to the goblin's shins sending the goblin down to his knees in front of Valaina. She grabbed the sides of its head and twisted it in a quick and violent motion, snapping the head around in a one eighty degree turn so that the stunned and pained face looked backwards before it fell dead to the ground. Another came at her only to be kicked in the groin. It fell to the ground and Valaina smashed its wind pipe with her foot, suffocating it.

Several more came at Valaina and she snarled in anger as she watched Kili dodge a whip's stroke only for another goblin to jump on him. He rolled once before he kicked the goblin off and stood up quickly. He punched another before he dodged the stroke of the whip of another goblin only to be tackled by another. Fili made out no better, though he succeeded in punching a goblin into two others, and Bombur used his weight to knock the three off the edge of the platform. Ori was fighting alongside Dori and Nori. Gloin was cursing the many goblins as they tried to beat him into the ground only to find the dwarf was not going down easily. Oin was helping Gloin out the best he could in his situation while Bofur was shielding himself from several goblins. Bifur was in the same situation as his brother, Bofur, and managed to avoid the whips. Old Balin used his head to knock a goblin back into Dwalin, the tattooed dwarf punching the goblin off the side of the platform with a yell of anger.

Valaina turned and grabbed a goblin in a head lock as she used her free hand to grab her dagger on her hip. She slashed a few necks open before breaking the neck of the goblin that she had in a head lock. "Touch any of these dwarves, or myself, one more time," Valaina growled in a dangerously calm tone to the goblins near her making them back up a step in fright, "and see what happens."

A goblin sneered at Valaina and strode toward her with his whip in his hand. In a quick motion, Valaina had sheathed her dagger and literally ripped the head off the goblin in pure anger before she tossed it over the edge of the platform without a care in the world. "You elf scum," a goblin growled at her. "You'll pay for that!"

It rushed Valaina with a goblin sword drawn. Valaina dodged the horrid strokes easily before disarming the goblin and stabbing the sword into the goblin's head. A whip came across the side of Valaina's face, a large cut opening down the side of her right eye. She turned and glared at the goblin, a snarl coming from her. The whip caught hold of her wrist and she pulled the goblin toward her making it lose its balance and run straight into Valaina's fist smashing its head. The cut on her face sealed itself in her Rage as she and the other dwarves fought back as best as they could without any of their usual weapons. Several of the goblins ran and knocked Thorin off his feet and held the dwarf down. He struggled as another goblin moved toward him. "Cut off his head!" the goblin king yelled in anger as he made a cutting motion in the air with his meaty hand.

"Thorin!" Valaina yelled out to the trapped dwarf before three goblin came at her and blocked her way to the dwarf. "Damn it!"

She threw a goblin into three others and watched as they went over the side. A goblin held a knife and aimed to cut off Thorin's head, pausing in delight which proved to be his biggest mistake, yet one of Thorin's greatest bouts of good luck. A bright light and a large, soundless wind knocked everyone and everything off their feet, minus an extremely pissed off Valaina who rolled once before she jumped to her feet and skid to a halt. There stood Gandalf with his sword in one hand and his staff in the other. "Always have to make an entrance," Valaina growled though she was doing a happy dance in her head that the wizard had finally showed up. "Come join the party, Gandalf! You've missed a lot of fun."

"This isn't a party, Valaina," the wizard mumbled. "Take up arms. Fight. Fight!"

Gandalf rushed forward wielding his staff and sword as the dwarves yelled as well and regained their feet. "He wields the Foehammer! The beater!" the goblin king yelled out. "Bright as daylight!"

The dwarves had gotten to the pile of weapons and where throwing them back to the others. "Valaina!" Kili and Fili yelled to the elleth each holding one of her dual blades as they stood next to each other.

Valaina turned to them and the two brothers tossed the elleth her blades in the same fluid motion. "Thank you very much," she said as she caught the blades in each hand before cutting down two goblins. "Oh, how I missed my blades. It makes things so much easier to kill."

The dwarves began to fight with their weapons as well in their own unique way. Valaina turned and twisted with the grace of an elf, yet the fierceness of any warrior. Her red eyes brightened in excitement as she let her anger out once more, the Rage within her strengthening her throughout the growing battle. She swung her blades around her, taking out many goblins as the beasts only used their odd whips and daggers, and a few used crude swords. Valaina saw Kili cut down a goblin with so much hate and anger it made her chuckle in shock. "Have I begun to rub off on you too much?" she asked as she cut down another goblin next to Kili.

"You know," he grunted as he sliced off the head of goblin and viscously stabbed another in the gut twice, "I think you might have."

Valaina gave a small laugh before she flipped her sword and thrust it backward into the gut of a goblin. It gurgled in pain as Valaina ducked out of the way of Kili's swinging blade. They watched the goblin's head roll away and off the side of the platform before the body fell as well. "Look out," they both said and stabbed a goblin behind each other.

"Well…that was…interesting," Valaina said.

"Heads up!"

Both raised their blades to block a large goblin's sword as it came down at them, which was the goblin's target they did not know. Valaina pushed back the goblin's sword with Kili before she stabbed its gut twice in a quick succession as Kili sliced its neck open. She turned and saw Dwalin swing his war hammer around and knock off several goblins. "Remind me to try a sparring session with Dwalin," she commented to Kili as they fought side by side.

"Why?" he asked with a grunt as he blocked a blow from a goblin's sword.

"Because I've never gone up against someone with a war hammer and I'd like to know how."

"Is it really necessary to be thinking of this now?!"

"No, but I am."

Kili shook his head as they both killed the goblin they were each battling. Kili wielded his sword with two hands as he slashed a goblin's side before switching to one hand and stabbing another twice in a quick motion. The goblin fell backward as he pulled his sword out. "Duck," Valaina said as she swung her blade around right over Kili's head and sliced off the head of a goblin that was going to stab Kili.

"Thanks!" Kili said as he stood up once more.

Valaina drew a dagger from her thigh and threw it, the dagger landing in between the eyes of a goblin that was about to stab Thorin in the back. The dwarf turned and looked at Valaina, gave a nod, and resumed his own fighting. Valaina twirled her blades expertly before a goblin rushed her. She kicked out and sent the goblin backwards into Fili's own dual blades. His shocked face brought on a quick bout of laughter from his brother and the lycan. "Really?" Fili asked in shock before dislodging the dead goblin from his blades.

"I was just kicking the damn thing away," Valaina said with a laugh. "Your face made me laugh."

"It was a good kick," Kili said after a moment of battling another goblin.

"Right into my blades," finished Fili. "I get credit for that, right?"

"No," both Valaina and Kili said.

The three turned in opposite directions as more goblins came at them. "Follow me! Quick!" Gandalf said as he followed Thorin who led the way across the bridge. "Run!"

"Fili, Kili, go!" Valaina shouted as the other dwarves began to race after Gandalf.

They looked at Valaina as she maneuvered her blades out beside her and sliced the necks on four goblins in soft, fluid motions before she turned and ran toward them. The brothers raced off over the bridge with Valaina right behind them. "Quickly!" Gandalf yelled as they raced over a large bridge.

"Faster!" Dori called out.

"I'm running as fast as you all will let me!" Valaina yelled back.

They ran on through the emptied bridges of the goblin town. Soon, the goblins began to appear out of nowhere, scrambling over the bridges and whatnot as they raced after the dwarves. "That party is just getting started," Valaina said.

"Party? How is _this _a party?" Fili asked.

"More like a workout," corrected Kili.

"Actually, it's a pastime," Valaina said.

"Pastime?" the brother questioned.

"I've been on the road so often that killing orcs and goblins and the like has become a sort of hobby of mine."

"Well, I'll admit that's not such a bad hobby," Fili said.

"Though you may want to consider a new one soon," added Kili.

"Why?" asked Valaina.

"Because by the time _we're _done with them," Kili started.

"There won't be any left for you," finished Fili.

"We'll see about that," Valaina said with a smirk.

"Would you three shut your mouths and run?" Gandalf yelled back at them and the trio picked up the pace as they realized they had slowed down to chat a little.


	19. Chapter 19: Fight and Flight

Chapter 19: Fight and Flight

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**A/N: No! We are nearing the end of the first movie! That means I'll have to get to writing the prequel's prequel XD Omg, that sounds weird. Anyway, this is, by far, one of my favorite chapters that I have written. Yes, there is speech from the movie and the describing of the scene, but I added a ****_lot _****to this, and I mean ****_a lot_****. I also got to have some fun playing around with Fili and Kili and poor unfortunate Valaina XD. I hope you all love this chapter as well! I have the next one ready, and then one more after that. I actually went over this chapter so many times I almost added even ****_more _****to it so I could split it into two. I haven't had Valaina fight side by side with Thorin. I wanted to save that for the whole "face down Azog" scene. I am really going to have fun with that one. Maybe I'll even get ****_two _****chapters out of that scene. If I can, that'd be awesome! More time staling! lol. But, anyway, enjoy and I hope you all love this chapter as much as I do!**

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She wasn't complaining too much for the dwarves were pretty fast, though they could have been faster. The path split with part of the company running up to the next level and the other part on the first level they had been running on. Valaina followed Dwalin who used his war hammer and ax to cut down any goblin that came to close. Suddenly, they found themselves being rushed by goblins. "Post!" Dwalin yelled as he, Nori, Bifur, and Fili cut the rope on a long piece of the wooden bridge and then proceeded to picked it up with their right arms. "Charge!"

They ran awkwardly as they carried the post, swiping away groups of goblins as they came at the company. Dwalin pushed several off that came too close as they continued moving as one. They dropped it when they got to the other side and continued to fight and run, the company separating onto different levels again but all heading in the same way. Valaina stayed toward the back, cutting down any goblin that got near her.

Fili slashed the goblins as they came at him, his movements like that of his brother. Thorin stopped and killed four in two swings before moving on and fighting with the ferocity and grace of a warrior in such a way that Valaina had never seen before. She watched for a moment as Thorin fought his way over two bridges, everything he did with such grace and skill Valaina wondered, with a bit of jealousy, if she looked like that when she fought. Balin twirled and his sword in skilled, fancy moves as he killed several goblins as well while Oin stood on the platform over and swung whatever his weapon was around over his head and knocked a good dozen off the sides. Nori and Bofur fought together with their war hammers as they ran, one smacking a goblin and the other smashing the head in with their war hammer.

Valaina found herself next to Fili, the blonde dwarf wielding his own dual blades with precision and deadly accuracy. The two fought side by side and doubled the death count of the goblins as they hacked, slashed, and stabbed their enemies. Valaina stabbed one goblin and sliced another's throat, a gleam in her sword telling her to duck as Fili's blade swung over her head to cut down a goblin on Valaina's left side. In turn, Valaina rolled and popped up behind a goblin and stabbed it, using her foot to kick it off her blade as she parried another attack. "They just keep coming," she said to Fili.

"They think we are easy targets," responded Fili.

With a grunt, Valaina blocked a sword with her left sword, the blade pointing toward her forearm. "We'll just have to show them otherwise," she said as she kicked the goblin away.

"You mean, _I _will have to show them otherwise," came the cheeky reply.

Valaina turned in a circle once, moving her blades with elven fluency and grace as she cut down several goblins, a sword nicking her here and there as she did so. She stopped to face Fili, the dwarf sporting a look of awe and jealousy at the elleth. Valaina gave a nod. "Behind you," she said in a lazy voice.

"Wha-"

Fili raised his sword just in time to block the horrid blow by the goblin who already was dead with Valaina's dagger in its face. "I got it," she said with a smirk.

Suddenly, she felt the urge to duck. She did so just in time to avoid a decapitation from the goblin behind _her_. Fili promptly stabbed the goblin and offered a hand to Valaina who was sitting on the ground in a disgruntled fashion. "I got it," Fili mocked her as she took his hand.

"Hmph" was all she said as Fili hoisted the elleth to her feet, blonde giving blonde a cheeky look. "If you two are done staring into each other's eyes like a bunch of lovers," Kili shouted as he charged past them, "then maybe you'd want to fight off the next hoard of goblins! As a wedding gift from me!"

Valaina and Fili both glared at the retreating brunette's back before turning to look at the oncoming hoard of goblins. "Right," Fili said as he and Valaina began to back up slowly.

"The hoard of goblins," Valaina finished.

They exchanged a look before taking off at a sprint after the other dwarf prince. "Kili, you can have your gift back," Valaina yelled to Kili as she paused to quickly dispatch a goblin before moving on with the brothers.

"Yeah, wedding's off!" Fili added in with the joke.

"Aw, you don't like it?" Kili called back with a huff as he swung his sword in an upward stroke cutting a goblin's head half off. "I'm offended."

Suddenly, Valaina and Fili's path was blocked before them and their escape route behind them was quickly diminishing. Valaina sheathed her blades and received an odd look from Fili. "Do not tell me that you're going to shift and leave me here for the goblins," he whined.

"No," Valaina growled as she shifted, "we are going to merely catch up with Kili. I don't like his gift."

Fili looked confused for a moment before he got the idea. "Cover your ears," she growled and he did just in time for her to let out a blood curling howl.

The goblins stopped in their charge for a few moments to try and recover from the ringing in their ears as Fili climbed onto the white wolf's back. "Um…well…this is…awkward…" he stuttered as he sheathed one blade, his face turning a bit pink.

Valaina growled, the rumbling going throughout Fili as well and the dwarf gave a shiver. "Only if you think like that," she snapped before taking off at a run.

Fili turned a bit more pink. "By Mahal, you aren't shy to put that out there," he mumbled.

"I'm a white furred wolf at the moment!" she said as she turned a sharp corner, Fili's hold on her fur tightening at the closeness of the drop. "Only you and Kili would be the ones to bring something like that up at a time like this."

Fili went to give a retort but stopped, his mouth shutting and his face donning a reluctant agreement look. "You are probably right on that one," he admitted.

They finally caught up to Kili where Valaina dumbed Fili next to his brother before shifting back to an elleth. She struck out at a goblin before turning back to the two brothers, Kili's laughing face and Fili's pink tinged one greeting her as she did so. "Oh, grow up you two!" she snapped as Fili turned and cut down a goblin.

They were about to run when Valaina caught sight of a goblin directly behind Kili. "Kili!" his brother called out as the goblin raised his sword.

Valaina acted on pure instinct at the moment by tackling Kili out of the way in time for Fili to stab the goblin. Valaina rolled off to the side of the dwarf who was giving her a cocky smile. "First my brother and now me?" he asked. "I don't know whether or not to be happy about that."

"I think I'll just leave you here," Valaina said without a bit of remorse as she stood.

"Okay, I'm sorry!" Kili said as his brother helped him up, and Valaina raised an eyebrow before swinging and lashing out at two goblins who fell to her blade. "Valaina?"

The elleth turned back to Kili and he had on his puppy face. "I'm sorry," he tried, or lied.

"Whatever," she said though in a joking manner.

The trio took off and Valaina swore she heard another perverted joke pass between the two brothers. She turned quickly and threw a dagger right between the two at a goblin where it landed in a place the sun doesn't shine. Valaina gave the brothers a pointed looked before turning and continuing to run, Kili and Fili exchanging a look before following. Fili soon peeled off from them to assist Bifur and Bofur who were having a slightly harder time with a larger group of goblins.

A group of goblins used swinging ropes to begin to fling themselves over to the dwarves. "Cut the ropes!" Thorin yelled out as he, Nori, and Dori cut the ropes of one of the crude bridges making the bridge fall and catch the swinging goblins in midflight before sending them all down into the abyss below.

Fili was swiping down any goblin that got too close for comfort as he followed Bifur and Bofur along the bridge just in front of Kili and Valaina as the two closed in closer to the trio ahead of them. Valaina decapitated one goblin while Kili knocked another off the side of the ledge before both turned back-to-back to face the two goblins coming at them from opposite directions. They swiftly stabbed and kicked the goblins off the side of the bridge in unison as Fili paused and struck down two goblins coming up at them from the side of the bridge. "Kili!" Valaina yelled out as she shifted. "Fili, run! We'll cover you!"

"Got it!" Fili yelled out as Kili gave a nod before jumping onto the white wolf's back like he would a horse, holding onto the white fur with one hand and his sword in the other. "Don't fall off, Kili!"

"At least _I _get a ride!" Kili countered as his brother took off up onto another level after Bifur and Bofur.

"Hang on," Valaina growled with a shake of her head before she took off.

"Now I know what it's like riding a warg."

"Oh, you don't know the half of _that_."

"You've ridden one?" Kili asked as he swung his blade several times to cut down advancing goblins.

"Let's just say it was the only option of a quick getaway."

"You'll have to tell that story later."

Valaina took off across the bridge as Kili bent lower over her back as she bowled over the goblins on the long bridge. Kili slashed several as they made their way across the bridge and up a set of stairs to another bridge. He cut several down as Valaina ran on, snapping her jaws at a few goblins. Several goblin archers tried to take aim at the wolf and dwarf when Valaina stopped.

Kili promptly jumped off her back and into a roll on the ground before he pop up and killed the two archers with a few quick swings as Valaina shifted back. She unsheathed her swords in a fluid motion and cut down several at the same time before turning to the goblins who were attempting to try to make their way across the bridges after Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur who had been running behind the two. A few more archers came at them, one firing at Kili. He used his sword to block the arrows before he grabbed a ladder and used it as a shield to give him enough time to entrap the goblins with it. He then pushed the goblins backward across the bridge and off the gap before using the ladder as an extension of the bridge to pass over. Dwalin knocked the ladder away as Valaina cleared the gap in a jump and joined the rest of the company as they descended the stairs from wherever they had gone off to. "Come on, quickly!" Gandalf said as they ran on.

"Come on, move!" Dwalin yelled.

Gandalf led the way on, cutting down the goblins that where trying to climb onto the bridge they were currently on. Thorin twisted and swung along with Balin and Gandalf, the three fighting in a deadly dance of a sort as they continued on. Kili cut down a goblin, turned and paused to cut down another. The path had grown blocked up by the large number of swarming goblins. "Valaina, think you could give us a hand again and clear this path?" Kili asked as he turned to the lycan.

"I believe I can," she growled before sheathing her blades and shifting to race past them, her white fur a blur as she ran by.

"Valaina!" Gandalf scoffed at the elleth.

She snarled before bowling over the goblins that had amassed in their way giving the company time to regroup and run. They made it onto a bridge suspended by four ropes overhead and one holding it to the bridge. Thorin cut the rope holding the suspended bridge to the solid-ish one, and the bridge moved to the other side through the air. "Jump!" Thorin yelled and Bofur, Kili, Balin, and Oin made it over to the next bridge before the suspended one swung back to the waiting goblins on the other side.

Valaina used her head to knock a few off as the bridge swung back toward the other dwarves, the remaining dwarves and Gandalf jumping off as the suspended bridge came close enough. Fili stole a glance at Valaina who gave a quick nod and ran after him. He cut the rope as they jumped, Thorin catching and steadying Fili as he landed while Valaina sailed over the group and landed in a roll, shifting back to an elf as she did so. "Let's move!" she called to the company as they began to run once more.

Gandalf stopped a moment and cleared his path before he continued the slow pace forward. Kili and Fili slashed their way down the stairs, the two brothers fighting side by side. Valaina twisted and turned as she cleared her own way through the ranks of goblins as they ran on. Thorin twisted and sliced his way through four goblins as Dwalin bashed some skulls in, and Valaina swore that she saw a smile on the burly dwarf's face as he fought. They came to a stretch of downhill rock. Gandalf touched the rock overhead and a large boulder came down. "Push!" Dwalin yelled as he and Gloin pushed the rock to get it started rolling.

They used the rock to clear their path of goblins as they ran down hill and to the next bridge. On they fought, Thorin cutting down goblins left and right as well as decapitating a few followed by Gloin and then Kili and Fili. Kili stabbed the goblins left and right, looking like he was wielding a dagger rather than a sword. Fili was doing much of the same, except he had two swords instead of one. "Hate goblin's much?" Valaina asked the brothers before she hopped onto the rail of a bridge and jumped over to the other rail, twisting in the air and cutting down several goblins behind the two brothers.

"Just a little," they said at the same time before turning to each other and exchanging a look before running on.

Valaina swore she heard them say something about a kill count, and she was glad she had been counting herself. If it was a kill count contest, her day just got better. She watched as Thorin swung his sword across his body, cutting down at least six goblins as they rushed him. Fili and Kili were on another one of their dagger styled sword fighting spree as they stabbed and slashed goblins down. Valaina was wondering if they were stabbing just to let their anger out or if they were having a little too much fun, thinking she had maybe rubbed off on them _way_ too much, or was it just their style of fighting. As they ran, she thought it might just have been her rubbing off on them. Suddenly, Gandalf stopped as did the rest of the company when the goblin king popped up out of the bridge and blocked their way. "Let me kill that piece of shit!" Valaina moved forward but was held back by Fili and Kili while Gandalf moved forward instead. "Well then, steal my thunder, won't you?!"

"You make no sense sometimes, Valaina," Gandalf said back to the lycan.

"You thought you could escape me," the goblin king said as he wielded his skull scepter with horrid accuracy.

He brought it down right in front of Gandalf before swinging it at the wizard who stumbled and fell backward only to be pushed back on his feet by the dwarves behind him. "What are you going to do now, wizard?" the goblin king asked.

Gandalf poked the goblin king in the eye with his staff before slicing its stomach open to show layers of fat. The goblin king fell to his knees, a look of disgust on both Valaina and Gandalf's face. "That'll do it," the goblin king said before Gandalf sliced his neck open.

The dead goblin king's weight sent the tiered bridge they were on down and away from the rest of the goblins. The company clung onto the bridge wherever they could as it began to slide down the side of the smooth rock wall before it crashed into several other wood structures, the dwarves strewn about in the wood heap as it continued on its downward descent. The dwarves screamed and yelled as they went down a thin drop, the tiered bridge slowing down enough to not kill anyone as it bumped against the walls, but still fast enough to break in bits and fall on a few heads. The company groaned and Valaina found herself on her stomach next to Kili, Fili, and Dwalin, the three dwarves on their backs with a look of pain on their faces. The four exchanged a look and then rested their heads with a sigh. Suddenly, she had the urge to move. She turned her head and looked up and her eyes widened in fright. "Get up," she said. "Get up now!"

"What?" Kili, Dwalin, and Fili asked at the same time.

Valaina dislodged her foot painfully from the rubble before she dove out of the rubble and popped up from her roll to stand next to Gandalf, stumbling a bit from the quick motions. The wizard steadied her as they turned and looked at the disgruntled company. "Well, that could've been worse," Bofur said in good-naturedly.

Just to prove the dwarf wrong, the body of the dead goblin king fell onto the wood pile, loud groans of pain coming from the dwarves. Valaina laughed even though it wasn't very appropriate at the time, though the faces the dwarves were each making didn't help her cause one bit. "You've got to be joking!" Dwalin cried out.

"Valaina, shut up and help us out, will you?!" Kili yelled at the elleth.

"I'm sorry," she said and moved to help clear the pile. "Your faces were hilarious."

She began to help Kili up when his face turned from one of slight pain to fear. "Gandalf!" he cried.

"Oh, shit," Valaina said as she saw the hordes of goblins racing down toward them like ants. "Move, Kili!" she yelled as she grabbed the dwarf's clothes and pulled him up onto his feet letting out a grunt as she did so. "Damn, did you get heavier?"

"What? Hey!" Kili said as he brushed himself off. "You just got weaker!" he countered.

"Excuse me-"

"Valaina!" Gandalf yelled at the same time Thorin yelled out, "Kili!"

" Never mind! Move, now! Dwalin get off your ass and go!" Valaina said.

Dwalin helped Nori out as Valaina turned to help Fili up, the other dwarves picking themselves up quickly. "There's too many! We can't fight them!" Dwalin said.

Valaina went to object but was smacked on the back of her head by Gandalf's staff. "Ow! Hey!" she said as her hand flew to the back of her head.

"I swear, those two dwarves made you more childish! But Dwalin's right, Valaina," Gandalf said to her. "Only one thing will save us, daylight. Come on! Here, on your feet!"

"Let's move!" Dwalin yelled. "Valaina!"

"I swear, the amount of times my name has been called in this one day is astonishing," Valaina said as she turned to Dwalin. "No need to wait, go!"

"Fili, let's go!" Kili yelled to his brother as he hoisted him up in an awkward manner.

"Do you have two heads?" Fili asked as he rubbed his head.

"Move! Come on!"

Kili pushed his brother forward, and Valaina shifted as they were the last three. She crouched down. "Climb on, damn it!" she growled.

Fili got on like a drunken idiot with Kili right behind him. "Hold on! By the time we get out, he'll be alright," Valaina said as she dashed forward after the rest of the company.

"Well, as alright as Fili can get," Kili said with a smirk and Valaina gave her chocked-strangling noise as a laugh, the rumbling in her chest moving throughout the two dwarves as she laughed.


	20. Chapter 20: Bilbo Appears

Chapter 20: Bilbo Appears

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**A/N: So, we are really close to the end of the first movie and I don't like it...sad eyes...well, the battle is coming in the next chapter because I chopped it into two again XD Purposefully, of course. This one isn't as action packed, so it is sort of a filler because I am procrastinating in posting the next, possibly last, chapter until the ****_Desolation of Smaug _****comes out on DVD...*sniffles* I kind of want to do a "OC from our world transported into ME" fan fic for the hell of it. Actually, the idea came from when my friend and I were watching ****_The Hobbit _****the other day and I sort of started a conversation on what the company would think of us if we were thrown into the adventure as well. She said, ironically enough, that they would probably dumb me off the side of the cliff or use me as warg bait because I would probably be like Valaina with all my snide remarks and smart-ass comments. That and I don't take people yelling at me very well XD so...I may do one like that just for the hell of it, may not. We'll see.**

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**Thanks for Favoriting:**_  
ThaliaHuntressGrace_

**Thanks for Following:**_  
ThaliaHuntressGrace  
Long Live the Slayer  
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** Seriya Silvermist (Ch. 17): **Lol. And thank you a ton! That means a lot, and I have worked hard to not make her turn out Sueish, but make it more of her character. It's just the way she is: a fighter. I was hoping that I could convey her without crossing that line, and to have you say that is just the nicest thing :) thank you a ton!

** Seriya Silvermist (Ch. 18): **Omg, I saw that as well XD my bad! Thanks for pointing that out. And lol at the pastime as well. She has nothing better to do anyway XD

** Seriya Silvermist (Ch. 19): **Aww, thanks! I like fight scenes a lot. I don't know why, lol, but I do and it tends to help a LOT when I listen to fight-like music.

** Angel of Light: **Thank you from both myself and Valaina for that. And thank you for reading and reviewing :)

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They caught up with the rest of the company as they just passed out of the cave and out into the open. Valaina stumbled, Kili and Fili falling off the wolf's back as she shifted and landed on her back. "That's bright, that's bright!" she yelled out. "Holy mother…" she trailed off again in a string of profanities.

"Thanks for the warning, Valaina," Fili said as Kili helped him up.

"It was bright!"

The brothers helped Valaina up off the ground as her eyes adjusted. They were on the side of the mountain in a sparse, rocky forest. She spotted the rest of the company as they ran down the mountain side. "Shall we?" she asked.

"Let's get going!" Fili said and they took off.

The dwarves were actually really fast, and Valaina found that they kept up a good pace as they raced downhill jumping over rocks and dodging trees as well as using large hidden boulders to their advantage. She slowly fell behind as she something began to make her head hurt. Suddenly, and quite suddenly, she dropped to the ground next to a tree, Kili and Fili well ahead of her and not noticing her absence. She gave a growl as her anger roared up. Something dark had triggered her Rage like nothing before. Her eyes turned dark red like blood as she fought herself until finally the Rage passed. She sat against the tree, her breath coming in short ragged exhales. Whatever it was that made her so anger had given up for her head ceased its throbbing. She stood on shaky legs, testing their strength a bit before she continued on at a walk, unable to run at the moment.

The sun was setting and many of the, well, slightly _heavier _dwarves were beginning to tire horribly. They were in an area with many large trees with low hanging, thick bows and half hidden half protruding rocks. "Five, six, seven, eight," Gandalf was counting as everyone was coming to a stop. "Bifur. Bofur. That's ten. Fili, Kili! That's twelve," Gandalf said as Fili and Kili slowed to a walk just as Thorin, being Thorin, jumped off a large boulder into the clearing. "And Bombur, that's thirteen."

The company leaned against a tree or rock as they tried to catch their breath. "Thirteen," Gandalf said and then, "Where's Bilbo? Where is our hobbit?"

Fili and Kili looked all around them for Bilbo, even looking down at the ground and up in the trees a few times. "Where is our hobbit?"

"Curse the Halfling! Now he's lost?" Dwalin growled.

The sounds of the company reached the elleth's ears as she made her way down toward them, still pretty far away from them. She caught scent of Bilbo at that moment, and then a wind blew past her, a soft wind. She could have sworn a footprint appeared in the dirt below, but she brushed it off as a part of her head being stupid. "I thought he was with Dori," Gloin accused.

"Don't blame me!" defended Dori.

"Well, where did you last see him?" Gandalf asked.

"I think I saw him slip away when they first collared us," Nori said.

"And what happened, exactly? Tell me!"

"Right," Valaina growled under her breath, "forget the lycan. As usual."

"I'll tell you what happened," Thorin sound in anger.

"And here we go with our ray of sunshine," Valaina muttered as she continued to walk toward the group.

"Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it," Thorin said. "He has thought of nothing but his soft bed and warm hearth since he first stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing our hobbit again. He is long gone."

"That's a bit harsh," Valaina said. "Damn it, Thorin, have a bit of faith in someone other than yourself."

Of course the dwarf did not hear her as she was still out of earshot of the company. She saw Fili and Kili give each other an upset look before glancing back to the ground. Suddenly, Bilbo appeared behind a tree and stepped out. "No. He isn't," Bilbo said.

But, as soon as he stepped out, Valaina was bombarded by the same Rage as before, except this was tenfold. She stopped and fell to the ground against a tree, hidden from view as she fought to stay calm, the voices of the company just barely reaching her ears through the pounding of her blood. She had the desire to rip apart something, _anything _in half just to rid herself of the anger that had flared up when Bilbo reappeared, a gold glint in his hands. She had never felt anything like this before. The anger was so intense it began to become painful. She clutched her head in her hands, fighting herself from within.

And then, she was released. It was the oddest thing she had ever experienced, and it had begun to turn painful. She did not want to feel anything like that again, but somewhere deep inside her she knew she would. "Bilbo Baggins," Gandalf chuckled, "I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life."

"That's an understatement," Valaina growled. "Now I really feel like chopped liver."

"Bilbo," Kili said in extreme happiness, "we'd given you up!"

"No, we forgot about him," muttered Valaina.

"How on earth did you get past the goblins?" asked Fili, finishing his brother's sentence.

"How indeed," Dwalin said in a less than pleased voice.

"We are all wondering that, Dwalin," Valaina growled again, still out of earshot of the company. "Bet you my tail that he wasn't even near the goblins."

"Well," Gandalf started, "what does it matter? He's back."

"It matters," Thorin said in his usual gruff, stern voice and Valaina had to roll her eyes.

"Here we go," she grumbled, the recent bouts of her anger getting the better of her mood.

"I want to know. Why did you come back?"

"Look, I know you doubt me. I know you always have," Bilbo started and Valaina gave a snort as she figured where this was going, "And you're right, I often think of Bag-End. I miss my books. And my armchair and my garden."

Valaina shook her head up at the sky. "Only a _hobbit _would miss a _garden_. Of all things, Bilbo, why the garden?" she asked the trees hopelessly.

"See, that's where I belong. That's home. And that's why I came back. Because…you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can."

Silence.

"Oh, dear Valar," Valaina mumbled, "don't kill him, Thorin."

Silence.

Valaina groaned and got up. "But, I can't say the same for Valaina," Bilbo started and she stopped in her tracks. "I…wait, where's Valaina at?"

Gandalf look around as did the others. "Kili, Fili," Thorin grumbled loudly, "she was with you last. Where is she?"

"She's not with you?" the brothers asked each other.

Thorin groaned in agitation and frustration. "How do you lose a _lycan_? She's not that hard to lose!"

"Oh, now they miss me," Valaina grumbled as she took off in a sprint toward them, a slight agitated growl escaping her throat.

"I believe that's her," Gandalf said with a less than amused look.

"Valaina!" the two brothers chorused as the elleth skid to a halt into the clearing, tripping up slightly on a root.

"Whoa!" she said before righting herself with a serious expression on her face. "That root attacked me."

"And where have you been?" Thorin asked gruffly.

"It's good to see you too," she said with a slight glare before turning to Gandalf. "We may have a slight problem."

"What do you mean?" Gandalf asked and the rest of the company got extremely wary.

"I felt something…dark," she said in a deadly serious tone.

"There's always something dark in these parts," replied Thorin coldly.

"Yes, that may be," she said as she looked at each and every one of her companions, "but this was far beyond anything I have felt before. It was beyond dark, Gandalf. And it was strong enough to call forth something within me that I have never felt before."

Kili and Fili both noticed the way the elleth stood; poised and ready to attack, on edge and slightly nervous. But what the nephews picked up the most from her was something they have never seen before from the elleth, and it was fear. "Gandalf," she started again and this time the two brothers could definitely hear the twinge of fear on her voice, "it wasn't even at its own full strength. Even in its weak state it was strong enough to nearly send me into a killing spree; it nearly turned me feral."

Gandalf had a knowing look in his eye, and if he guessed correctly, it was whatever Bilbo had in his pocket that had brought the onslaughts of anger in the elleth. "My dear, I do not think it would be wise to dwell on that," he said pointedly, "and it will be most wise of you to remember your dagger next time."

"I'm not emotionally challenged, Gandalf," she defended. "Just…angry sometimes."

"That doesn't mean your anger won't heal you."

She gave a snort before crossing her arms.

Suddenly, a distant howling and barking noise reached Valaina's ears. "Do you hear that?" she asked no one in particular as the brothers moved closer to her.

"Hear what?" Fili asked.

"I hear you," said Kili.

"Not me, you dimwit," Valaina said.

She heard it again though this time it was louder. Then, a howl followed by mad barking and growling. "That's not me," Valaina said to the company's horror. "I am standing…right here."

"Wargs," the brothers said.

"Out of the frying pan…" Thorin started.

"And into the fire. Run!" Gandalf finished in a very grave, worried voice. "_Run_!"

"B-bu-" Valaina started halfheartedly as she made to move toward the coming wargs.

"Valaina!" the brothers and their uncle yelled as well as, shockingly, Dwalin as they gave her a pointed look and a glare.

"Fine, I'm coming," she grumbled and ran with the company. "But I could have-"

"Valaina," Kili started.

"Please," added Fili.

"Run!" they said together.

"You guys are no fun," she mumbled.

"We heard that," they said.

"That's the point."


	21. Chapter 21: Battle on the Cliff

Chapter 21: Battle on the Cliff

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**A/N: One more chapter to go before we have to wait a long ass time for the next one! But, I do have something to say:  
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**1) I will be doing a prequel (an actual one!) to****_ The Hobbit _****and ****_Lord of the Rings_**** that includes Valaina's back story and all of her crazy adventures in detail, including her troll incidents! This should be fun. If you have any suggestions/questions as to what possibly could have happened to her during the 300+ years before ****_The Hobbit_****, please feel free to leave a comment or PM me!  
**

**2) I have another ****_The Hobbit _****fan fic that I will be doing in the mean time as well, just because I really wanted to do a Kili/OC sort of thang lol. It will be subtle like ****_Scarlet Eyes _****was with Legolas and Valaina, but it should be a lot more fun because Kili and Fili are both so much fun to write! Oh, I'll have fun with this! It is called _The Amarië_ if you are interested in reading it. There is a madness behind the name! Doubt me not! XD**

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** Seriya Silvermist: **I don't want it to end either, but I am excited to write about her past adventures, and my newest OC. Boy, is this going to be interesting to say the least :D And it's good to hear I have some kind of humor XD

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They ran. Again. Valaina looked back and saw the wargs closing in quick on them, a whole pack of riderless wargs. A whole pack of orc riding wargs made their way slowly down the cliff side, delight clear on their faces. Valaina gave a growl as she caught sight of the quickly closing in wargs as they ran. "Go!" Thorin yelled as they continued to run.

"What do you think we are doing?" she growled at him.

One warg jumped up and over a rock and landed facing Bilbo. The poor hobbit, petrified, backed up against a tree as he pulled his sword out. The warg growled and charged straight into the sword. It fell dead with the sword stuck in its head. "Good job, Bilbo," Valaina said as she slowed next to him to give the hobbit a pat.

Thorin tripped up another warg before he stabbed it with his sword and Dwalin smashed it's head. Another was coming up right behind Ori when the dwarf jumped, swinging his war hammer back and crushing the warg's skull. Valaina turned and drew her dual blades before dodging to the side and slicing a warg's throat. She turned to another and cut it down with Fili before they turned to help Kili only to find the brother removing his sword from the dead warg's neck. "You two were busy," he said in an innocent voice.

"Plenty more where they came from anyway," Fili said as they turned.

They had come to the end of the cliff with nowhere else to run. "Now can we fight?" Valaina asked under her breath.

"Up into the trees! All of you, climb! Bilbo, climb!" Gandalf said as he climbed the tree that was on the edge of the cliff. "Valaina, you too!"

Valaina rolled her eyes at Gandalf but said nothing as the wizard gave her a glare. "Quickly!" Thorin yelled out.

Nori jumped off a rock and used Dwalin's bald, tattooed head as a stepping stone to the next tree where he quickly climbed higher. Bilbo was having trouble with his sword that was stuck in the warg's head as Kili jumped and executed some fancy twist on a branch before standing up on it and waited for his brother. Fili jumped toward the tree where Kili helped him up onto a branch before the two began to climb higher. Bifur threw Balin up into the tree branches before climbing up himself. Bombur somehow managed to get himself onto a lower branch as the other dwarves climbed into the trees. Bilbo remained on the ground trying to dislodge his sword from the warg's head. "Valaina, come on," Kili shouted to the elleth.

"Climb," added Fili.

Valaina turned to comply grudgingly, and then saw Bilbo finally dislodged his sword. He looked around and saw that he and Valaina were the only two on the ground, and then his eyes landed on the wargs. "Shit," Valaina said under her breath.

She turned and shifted, taking off at a sprint toward Bilbo. One warg was way ahead of the others as it closed on Bilbo. The hobbit didn't have a chance as the warg jumped, launching itself at the hobbit. Valaina jumped into the air as well and caught the warg in her jaws as she descended. She landed and tossed the dead warg away. With a growl, she turned toward Bilbo. "No, no, no-" he started in fear as Valaina raced toward him, mouth open as she grabbed his shirt.

"Too bad," she growled as she threw him into the tree with Fili and Kili and some other dwarves.

"Valaina, come on!" Dwalin yelled to the elleth.

_Get your ass into the trees! No, stay and fight. Trees…fight…trees…fight…trees…fight…move Valaina! _Valaina fought with herself in the time span of less than a millisecond. "Valaina!" Gandalf yelled at the elleth.

"I'm going!" she growled as she raced back to the tree that she had thrown Bilbo in.

She jumped, shifting as she did so but managing to grab hold of a branch higher up than she would have had if she were an elf. She pulled herself up on the branch and climbed up higher until she was on a branch below Kili. "Nice of you to join us," Kili said.

"You weren't going to leave us hanging, were you?" added Fili.

Valaina didn't say anything as she looked at the wargs, still thinking she could take on all of them single handedly. But then, the rational side of her told her she couldn't, and would have been overwhelmed quickly. "Hang on!" Bofur called to his brother.

"Hold on, brothers!" said Gloin.

The wargs surrounded the base of the trees, brown mangy fur and yellow eyes glaring up at the dwarves as a single white warg with a horridly scarred, pale orc, with a single arm missing just below the elbow, astride it stepped onto a boulder. It leaned over its mount and spoke in the black tongue sending Valaina into another fight with herself as she tried to keep a calm head on. "Are you alright?" Fili asked uncertainly as the elleth's scarlet red eyes changed and shifted in swirling hues of red.

"No…" she growled out.

"Azog," she heard Thorin say.

Azog the defiler, the pale orc, Thorin's oldest enemy. Valaina saw the pure hate come into Thorin's face as Azog pointed his mace at the dwarf before yelling at the others and swinging it once over his head. The wargs charged at the trees, jumping and bashing into them as they did so. The trees shook violently, and Valaina found herself in a position to either stand and fight or stay with the dwarves. She was conflicted. Part of her wanted to seriously risk her life to try and save her companions, an impossible feat really, and the other part wanted to stay in the tree with them. Their tree shook violently, and Valaina saw Kili and Fili both lose their balance and sprawl out on the branch they were holding on to as the dwarves cried out. "Fili, Kili!" she said to them, "Hang on!"

"We're trying!" Fili said with a grunt as the tree shook again.

"Though it would be easier if the tree would stop shaking!" added Fili.

"But it's not."

"And neither are we."

"Valaina, look out!" Dwalin yelled to the elleth too late.

A warg was able to jump high enough and grab hold of the branch the elleth was on. The branch broke and Valaina fell toward the ground, her companions calling her name. She turned and landed on the back of a warg, the air escaping her lungs. She jumped off the warg's back and shifted just in time to avoid having teeth in her chest. With a growl she launched herself at the warg, biting and clawing the warg with all she had until she came out of the fight victorious. She turned and ducked under the jaws of another warg before tearing its throat out in anger.

Valaina turned for the next only to have her head connect with a warg's as it charged her. They both crashed into a tree. "Oi, lass! Watch where you're fighting at!" Dwalin yelled at her.

Valaina snapped and crunched on the warg's neck before she was able to throw the beast off her, sending it tumbling off the side with another. A few large gashes were opened up on Valaina's shoulder, but the lycan didn't seem to see them as she charged right into the thick of the wargs, maiming one and then sending another rolling which tripped up another warg and both went over the edge, one scrabbling for a hold on the cliff edge. Valaina stalked up to it, pearl white teeth gleaming in the moonlight as her eyes flashed dangerously. The warg growled and then whimpered as Valaina stood above it. She bit its paw and it lost its balance and fell down the cliff side.

She whipped around and raced toward the wargs, intent on killing a few more. But, she was intercepted by another warg. She was sent flying off her feet into a tree. Two of the wargs took an interest in Valaina as she tried her best to fight back in her position against a slowly uprooting tree, but was outnumber. A large warg, much larger than her, picked her up by her scruff and threw Valaina as the tree holding Kili, Fili, and Bilbo crashed into another. She shifted and hit the falling tree, something painful shooting through her side as she stood up on the falling tree and awkwardly ran up the trunk before jumping onto the next that was falling as well. They all jumped onto the next tree, and then next until the disgruntled dwarves, terrified hobbit, the grey wizard, and the lycan were all _happily _hanging in the last standing tree, the other all on the ground with their roots ripped up. Valaina shook her head and found herself crouched on a limb near Dwalin, the tattooed dwarf holding on to the tree trunk with one hand and the other holding her. "What in Mahal's name were you thinking?" he asked as he helped Valaina stand.

The lycan was unsteady on her feet, her head pounding from the charging warg that had hit her full on in the head. "You know, Dwalin," she said as she steadied herself, "I don't know."

"You were trying to kill yourself again, that's what you were doing," Kili said from above Valaina.

"You were the one that told me I needed a new pastime!" she defended.

"A new-by my beard, what are you talking about now?" Dwalin said to the lycan.

"We didn't mean it!" Fili and Kili shouted to the elleth.

"And trying to kill yourself is not a good pastime," Fili reprimanded the lycan.

"Stick to the goblins and orcs," added Kili.

"I'm alright now! See? Not trying to kill myself at the present moment!" Valaina yelled back.

Kili was about to object, but then realized he couldn't see anything except for Valaina's head through the branches. Suddenly, a flaming pine cone was thrown at the wargs. Valaina looked up to see Gandalf setting another on fire. "Fili!" he said as he dropped the pinecone into the blonde dwarf's hands.

Fili quickly lit another and dropped it down toward his brother before he turned and lit one in Bilbo's hands. A flaming pinecone fell into Valaina's hands and she tossed it up in the air once before hurling it and hitting a warg's face. "Nice throw!" Dwalin said before chucking his and watching in delight as it hit a warg's side.

"Good shot," Valaina responded.

Another was tossed down to her and she quickly lit one and Dwalin's hands before she threw hers away. It hit a warg's rear end, the warg's butt going up in flames as it yelped and tried to race away. Bilbo's aim was better as he hit two wargs with one pinecone. Kili and Fili managed to hit the same warg, sending the animal up in flames as it raced away. Soon, the wargs began to growl and turn tail to run. Clearly, these Gundabad wargs did _not _like fire around them or on them. The fallen trees around them were lit up in flames, but for now the wargs were held at bay. A loud cheer went up among the dwarves, thinking that they had held the wargs off for now.

"They won't be coming for us now," Dwalin growled.

Valaina could see the angry look on Azog's face, but in that instant she saw it light up. She moved around the branch she shared with Dwalin and to another as she looked at the pale orc. A loud cracking noise went up from the foot of the tree, and the tree began to slowly lean toward the cliff edge. Then, it took a violent dip so that it was around a forty degree angle from the ground making the dwarves slip and grab hold of whatever branch they could. The tree dipped again and came to a thirty degree angle from the cliff edge. Valaina clung to a branch as she looked down at the drop below. She wasn't afraid of heights, but she was afraid of falling. She looked up and saw Ori slip and fall. "Ori!" she called out as the young dwarf grabbed onto Dori's leg.

Dori slipped and grabbed onto Gandalf's outstretched staff. The dwarves were clutching branches with all their strength, terrified of falling to their deaths. She saw Kili hugging his own branch with a look of something on the lines of "holy shit" plastered across his faces. She caught sight of Fili, to her left, his branch slowly breaking off the tree. "Hold on, Fili!" she growled to him.

"I'm doing the best I can, you know!" he said back.

Valaina moved quickly, her elven weight doing nothing against the tree as she moved up a branch. "Grab my hand," she said as Fili's branch began to break even more.

"What?" he asked in shock.

"Grab my hand, now!"

Fili reached out and caught the elleth's hand just as his branch snapped. She hoisted him up onto the stronger branch next to her, the blonde dwarf clinging to it like his mother. "Thanks," he said breathlessly.

"I got you," Valaina answered with a smile.

The two looked up as they heard Thorin let out a huff. He stood up from his extremely safe position on the tree. His sword drawn and his oaken shield ready, he stood up on the tree looking very much like the warrior and king he was. He started to walk down the tree, hate and determination on his face. He broke into a run at the base of the tree, sword and shield up. "He's going after Azog," Valaina said with wide eyes.

"No," said Fili.

"He can't possibly win…he's outnumbered…"

"And that orc has a warg."

"What is he thinking?!"

Thorin was hopelessly outmatched, but he was determined, if anything, to try and buy the company time or die trying. The warg jumped off the rock and nailed Thorin in the face, the dwarf falling onto his back with a groan. "Thorin!" Fili yelled.

"Get up! Come on!" Valaina said as well.

Thorin staggered to his feet, but Azog had the upper hand has he swung his mace, the weapon connecting with Thorin's chest and face sending the dwarf backward. Valaina felt the pain and flinched, knowing all too well what a mace could do. The white warg clamped down on Thorin, the dwarf yelling out in pain. "Thorin!" Dwalin yelled as he tried to get up on the tree only for his branch to break.

Valaina saw Bilbo stand, the hobbit drawing his sword with a frightened, yet determined look on his face as he started running off the tree. Thorin hit the warg with his sword causing the warg to throw him like a bone away and onto a large rock. Thorin laid on the rock, winded and wounded as Azog said something to another orc. The orc got off and advanced Thorin.

"Fili, move your ass!" Valaina growled as she grabbed the dwarf and hauled him up onto the tree trunk. "Kili, let's go! Move!"

Kili managed to get himself up onto the tree as well, and then Valaina did so. "You three, go!" Dwalin yelled as he found a way to stubbornly hoist himself up on the tree. "Go!"

Fili raced after Bilbo with Kili and Valaina hot on his heels as Dwalin clambered onto the tree trunk. Valaina charged past the flaming trees with the two brothers, dual blades out. They saw four wargs advancing Bilbo who stood protectively in front of Thorin's still body. With a yell, the trio attacked a warg each and drawing their attention. Dwalin was right behind them swinging his war hammer. It connected with a warg's face, bone breaking. Valaina dodged the jaws of a warg and blocked the orc blade before stabbing the orc's chest and the warg's head. She whipped her blades out and faced the approaching wargs. "Come on, you bastards," she growled to them.

One charged her, and she twirled her blades dangerously. She sidestepped and cut the warg's side as Dwalin turned brought his hammer down on the warg's head. Another raced toward Dwalin's back as Valaina jumped over the dead warg. She ran and then slid on the dirt, swinging her blades in an "X" motion as she did so cutting the warg's neck. The warg tumbled and fell as Valaina stood up quickly. "Look-" Fili started but was cut off as a warg charged him.

Valaina tried to dodge but wasn't quick enough as a warg ran into her and her blade. She tumbled with the warg and rolled to a stop against Kili's legs, the warg stopping short of running the dwarf over. "Get up," he said as Valaina stood slowly. "A little faster would do us some good."

Valaina gave a growl as she stood, retrieving her sword as she did so. Just then, a loud cry of an eagle reached their ears. They looked up and saw a large golden eagle swoop in, grab a warg in its claws, and toss it off the side. Several others swooped down as well and were tossing wargs off the cliffs left and right. Valaina ducked low to the ground next to Kili as the eagles swooped over them, neither wanting to be a victim like the wargs. They turned back to Thorin as an eagle cried out. It slowly, gently picked the dwarf up in its claws and began to fly over them, the still form of Thorin in the eagle's claws unnerving. Valaina saw the look on Kili and Fili's faces as an eagle came at them. "No, no!" Valaina heard Bilbo cry out as the eagle passed over them and on toward the hobbit.

The eagle picked up the hobbit and dropped it off the cliff only for it to land on the back of another. A few eagles grabbed the dwarves off the trees and dropped them onto the backs of the others as they began to fly after the eagle holding Thorin. Another eagle came at the four on the ground. It picked up Kili and Fili and tossed them off the edge, a smile lighting up Valaina's face as the brothers let out a scream of fright. "Valaina!" Dwalin said as another eagle came and proceeded to pick him up and drop him over the side with a yell.

The lycan raced toward the falling tree and jumped off the cliff, an eagle catching her on its back. Gandalf was the last to jump off the tree before it plummeted over the edge. He landed safely on an eagle's back as they flew toward the rest of the group. Azog's yell of fury and defeat reached the lycan's ears as they flew onward and way from the cliff.

The thirteen eagles flew on in night sky each bearing a dwarf, in some cases two. Kili and Fili rode on the back of the eagle next to Valaina. The two brothers turned to the lycan about to see if she was alright when they noticed the large about of blood covering her torso. Valaina sheathed her blades and moved slightly, a sharp pain in her side. She looked down at her body and saw a multitude of wounds on her torso and arms, and came to the conclusion that her back was in no better shape. Suddenly, she felt a wave of exhaustion overcome her. She had been holding on to her anger and Rage for so long now that she had all but been drained of energy. She couldn't hold on to her consciousness any longer, and promptly passed out, her body and mind needing to heal itself. "Valaina!" Kili called out alerting those around them to the unconscious elleth.

"She's quite alright," Gandalf said from behind them.

The two brothers turned to look at the wizard. "She's bleeding, Gandalf!" Fili tried.

"And she is healing, Fili. I am shocked that she did not crash sooner. She will be quite alright, Kili, do not worry."

The two brothers shared a look of concern for their lycan sister before turning to look out across the other eagles.


End file.
